and jumping back in

The two best moments on a passage? Setting off (see Wrightsville inlet sea buoy, on the right) and arriving in the next port (see Charleston inlet buoy, on the left). The forecast said NORTH west winds...more like WEST Northwest, at best. The forecast said seas 2-3 feet...more like 4-6! Nevertheless, we did pretty well, Raconteur was a champ, and we arrived in Charleston after about 30 hours.
We'll do the same again starting tomorrow morning, aiming for Fernandina (again, this time perhaps with a more realistic timetable given the amount of WEST in the NW!). The ICW from here has some pretty significant shoaling in a number of spots, and the captain says we've had our share of groundings already (I win with two; JP one, Susan one, both on softer ground). We'll finish the trip with a series of passages, if the weather cooperates. I'm not making any more timing predictions, however, and since we still think Raconteur is a PLEASURE craft (or so says JP, anyway) we'll be trying to limit the passage length to around 30 or so hours.
I'll post some more pictures in a separate post.