Charleston, SC

We left Beaufort, NC at 0540 on Friday with St. Augustine as our detination. Beautiful weather, great sailing....for about 6 hours. Winds were moderate from the NW. As the day wore on, the wind moved to WSW (about 20 degrees from where we were headed) and kicked up to 15-20 KTS. No issues - the day was fine...until we crossed Frying Pan Shoals (Cape Fear). For 6 hours we were pounded. Winds were 20-25 KTS, current was against us and waves were licking up. To make issues more fun, the Southern Atlantic chip for my chartplotter failed. I mean it flat out failed. This means no chartplotter for navigation. Fortunately, we have paper charts and a PC with another navigation software tied into our GPS and other instruments. We decided to head into Charleston to replace the defective chip. I was concerned that if we encountered bad weather and were forced into an inlet that we were not familiar with, not having a chart plotter at the helm would be a bad thing. As I write this, I am waiting for the West Marine guy to deliver the chip. Early in the morning, we will set out for St. Augustine to neat some heavey N-NE winds. Oh the joys opf sailing!!! More later. Happy Valentines Day (we think)