After we got our asses thoroughly kicked by a gale that chased us all the way down to Georgia, we made the Savannah inlet and headed north on the Intracoastal Waterway. We stopped at Skull Creek Marina, kissed the dry ground, sold the boat, and committed ourselves to being landlubbers for eternity. No, of course we didn’t do that, but I won’t pretend it didn’t cross my mind.

I had exactly enough energy to watch a movie and fall asleep at 9pm.

The only plane ticket we could find to fly Jeff home was $500. Added to the fact that our trip was four days instead of three, and the fact that we’re now at a marina in Hilton Head instead of home…the costs are quickly mounting. I keep waiting for our spending to level out but so far it’s just adding up, hundreds at a time. Jeff was kind enough to offer us a discount, seeing as we were unable to deliver the boat to Charleston (not that it’s his fault, he checked several weather services before we left and there was no forecast of a gale, and once we were out at sea we had no way to check the weather). But we are capable of delivering the boat up the ICW ourselves, and with the weather offshore getting worse and worse that wasn’t an option, so there was no reason for him to stay.

Just like that, Jeff is gone and we are on our own. There has been no easing in to boat ownership for us, no gentle learning curve. We are getting tossed right into things, from overnight passages, to gales, and now we’re on our own to deliver the boat to Charleston. We’ve never docked this boat before. We’ve never anchored this boat before. These are all things that we were going to learn eventually, but now we’re learning out of necessity, rather than at our leisure.

We booked two nights at the marina, we both need a day to recover, regroup, and make a plan. I started by cleaning the salt off of everything. Every exterior surface, and just about everything inside the salon, salt streaked down our windows and covered our door. It felt so good to get everything clean – the salt makes things sticky and gross. And it was therapeutic, like I was washing away the bad memories of the day before. A marina employee asked me why I bothered washing it, because the wind here will just cover everything in salt again. In the midst of the gale, I had touched my face and found that even my skin was salt-crusted, so I just smiled and said “Not like this.”

By noon everything was cleaned up. Exhausted and sore, it’s time to start planning the rest of our trip. We both asked for the rest of the week off work and our employers were kind enough to grant it. We need internet to get an anchorage guide and I want to watch a hundred videos on docking catamarans. We need food.

We walked up to the office to see if they had the anchorage guide we were looking for, and while they didn’t have the guide they did mention there was a West Marine nearby and we could take the marina’s courtesy car. Courtesy car! I could have cried, I was so happy. After a quick change of clothes we drove to West Marine, who did not have any of the things we were looking for, then, since we had the car, we started exploring. The first time we got out of the car we both started feeling really woozy. Neither of us was seasick on the boat trip, but the car ride seemed to induce some sort of reverse seasickness in both of us. We stopped at a couple thrift stores before finally hitting up the grocery store, where we picked up a few essentials and most importantly, beer.

Now we’re stocked up and ready to go. We finally cooked up that tuna we caught, I think it’s a skipjack so not the good kind of tuna but it tastes like victory nonetheless (especially with a good beer). Tomorrow is going to be a big day.