Days 65 and 66 Inlet Hopping

 We went outside had a nice sale to St Simons. Winds and waves were mostly out of the East. We approached and tied up at the fuel dock like pros. The sail drives are using less fuel the more we motor sail instead of only motoring. We had a Nice Anchorage next to the marina that is not requiring anyone to use an anchor light.  Ours is on the blink. I have been using a bright LED lantern to light the mast and spreaders at other anchorages. Incredibly, we have only docked at a marina overnight one time in the 66 days of this cruise. Thinking that the winds would be too high we opted to go ICW. There are too many crab traps in the channel. We felt a suspicious vibration in the boat. So Ben had to swim under the boat and cut loose the rope that was tangled in the sail drive. The water wasn't too terribly cold. We clocked 8 hours without going aground by following the magenta line diligently. There were unusually low tides. We anchored in Kilkinney Creek just past St Catherine's Sound. Nice quiet night. We left the anchorage at 8:00 and headed to Ossabaw inlet and the ocean. We navigated the inlet fine although it would be very difficult if the weather was bad. The shoals and current in the divided channels, ( north and south) would be a navigating challenge or a navigating disaster. For us the day started fine. We thought the wind prediction and wave direction prediction might be right. Wrong. We had 4-5 waves from the East with little wind. So we headed back in after about 20 miles later  into the Tybee Roads inlet a d then veered off into Calibogue Sound. ...continuing down ICW until we reached Beaufort. We had difficulty grabbing a mooring ball at the City Marina, consequently losing one of the boat hooks. We took the dinghy over to town for a fried seafood dinner. Yum. I'm so proud of Ben. He is very agile and flexible. He had to jump over the marina gate! We were not given the code. Also, the current here is so strong. Our dingy was pinned to the dock. Crazy to remember how many times we have swam the Beaufort River Swim in this current. But it was always in our favor then.