Beaufort, South Carolina and a Scary Bump in the Night!

March 31
     We had a pleasant trip of about 20 miles on the ICW to Beaufort, SC, passing Paris Island where the water tower advertised,, "WE MAKE MARINES."  We pulled into the Beaufort City Marina in time to watch KY play an exciting basketball game against Auburn in the elite 8 NCAA tournament.  They both played great, but Auburn played a little bit harder and won the game in overtime!  Kentucky's dream of another NCAA tournament win came to an end, but Karl and I will cheer for Auburn now, as our son-in-law is a War Eagle graduate!  I think he was even shocked about this game, Auburn mostly known for great football teams!
     
        This area is known for their extreme tides of 7 to 8 feet and the swift currents that runs throughout the channels.  We luckily docked our boat just fine, but they put us on the outside of a T-dock.  I am leading up to what happened:  In the middle of the night around 4:00 am, we were awakened by a sudden dreadful sound of bump, bump, bump that shook the entire boat!  What in the world had just happened? We jumped out of bed and saw a large boat trying desperately to tie up to the dock.  We heard their bow thrusters pumping, the wind was blowing and the current was so strong that it just pushed their boat into ours!  The captain came over with a flashlight and we tried to survey the damage in the dark.  He was very apologetic and we agreed to assess it in the morning.  Of course, Karl and I had a hard time getting back to sleep, eventually we just got up and started the coffee.

Bump in the night!

        In the morning light we could see that there was a small gash on the starboard side of the boat, next to the dive platform.  It took off the gelcoat, down to the fiberglass, but fortunately no worse than that.  It did not go through the hull, thank goodness!  There was also about a 6 foot long streak on the side, kind of like when someone "keys" a car!  We had it checked out by a boat repair man, who said the boat safety was not compromised and we could continue our trip, getting it fixed along the way when we had extra time.  We have actually become friends with the captain of the boat who hit us, and understand that it was out of his control!  That just shows how powerful the weather and mother nature can be!