We had a pleasant motor sail to St. Catherine’s Island leaving at 7:00 am and arriving here at 5:00 pm.  We are anchored in Walburg Creek which is very protected from strong winds.  The wind did pick up today to over 20 kts.   While we were coming through the channel we were going 10 kts which is very fast for us.  Part of this was due to the strong current in the channel.  However, we made very good time all day. 

We are still having problems with the genset so when we get to Charleston, assuming we can get there, we’ll need to have a repairman look at it.  Luckily, it only stops when it is in mode 5, for motorsailing.  When we are at anchor and want to use it to turn on air conditioning, charge our house batteries,  or to heat water for showers, it works fine.  Again today it cut out while we were coming through the channel.  We are more and more convinced that something happened while it was being repaired as we have never had this problem before and it happened on our first trip after the new part was put in the generator.

After we anchored, we took Daisy for a beach walk.  This will be one of the only beaches she will be able to run free on between Florida and Charleston.  It’s at least one mile long next to the inlet, with dead trees on the beach and a tropical forest covering most of the island.  In Charleston, we can go to beaches that allow dogs on leashes and at certain hours they can be off leash.  For some reason, Florida has the most stringent ordinances concerning dogs on beaches.  In almost all cases they are not allowed. In Ft. Lauderdale, dogs are not even allowed on sidewalks next to the beach.

The seas were a little rougher today, mostly due to swells. We had a following wind from the south, so we rode the waves easily.  The forecast for the next few days seems to be the same as today.  Tomorrow we’ll be in Hilton Head and then we’ll do an overnight to Charleston, arriving there on Monday....possibly Tuesday.  This is all assuming that the weather doesn’t change.  The last time we were here there were storms and we stayed an extra day to wait for the seas to calm down.  We are trying to time our departure tomorrow with a slack or outgoing tide. 

Click here for more photos of St. Catherine’s Island from our last trip here.