We spent a very quiet night in the anchorage just outside of Charleston. Next morning we prepared to leave it was cloudy and it looked like it would be a nice day. Off on the ICW we went with the tide today we should make good time. About 2 hours into our journey I looked behind us and I see a Coast Guard boat coming up on us. I calmly take over driving so it doesn't look suspicious so Joe can go shut something down below just in case we get boarded. And what do ya know we are going to get boarded!! The Coast Guard boat pulls up beside us, I power back the throttle, they ask if we have gotten boarded recently, I tell them no not on this boat, we had gotten boarded before when we were in Hawaii on a different boat. Joe takes the lifeline down and we invite them aboard. Now we know they are out here to keep everyone safe so there is no need to get our hackles up. We smile and say we are glad they are around, and we proceed to cooperate in every way possible. There are two Coast Guard officers and a County Sheriffs Deputy on our boat and two more Coast Guard on the boat that stopped us. They tell me to resume normal speed and they drop back and proceed to follow us during our inspection. They are very thorough and go through everything on the boat that needs checked, the head, life jackets, flares, whistles, air horn, all our documentation for the boat and others. After about an hour they say we pass all the inspections and hand us a THE GOLDEN TICKET. They tell us that we are good for a year so if we ever get stopped again within the year all we have to do is show our golden ticket and we should be good to go. We say our thank you and wish them a good day and they are off. After they leave we high five each other for passing the inspection.
That afternoon we are motoring along and we see storm clouds brewing ahead, our next anchorage is about 5 miles away, right where we are heading we look at our charts and we pull over in an anchorage because we do not want a repeat performance of the day before storm situation. We read in our cruising guide that this spot is buggy, boy was that an understatement, we get mobbed by bugs and mosquitoes it was like being in Minnesota at dusk. We have to totally close up the boat and it is hot and muggy. Muggy and Buggy all at the same time NOT a good combination!!! The fly squatter comes out and the bug spray is deployed. I do believe we killed all the little critters. They must not have seen humans for a while because the were relentless little suckers. So sad such a lovely place to anchor and we can't even sit in the cockpit to enjoy our cocktails. The storm we saw never did reach us but it is better to be cautious of these things.
Our next stop is Southport North Carolina. TTFN
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