Walburg River, GA

We left the marina this morning and decided to go "outside" (along the coast instead of the ICW) since the wind was favorable and we could sail downwind. It is a lot more relaxing to have the wide open ocean instead of trying to navigate from buoy to buoy on the waterway. We also hoped that once we left the inland waters we would be in a bug-free zone. Not so. It was like something from the X Files -- we had horse flies (those things can BITE), regular flies, dragonflies, one butterfly (pretty!) and swarms of this other kind of bug (black with a red head) that we're not sure what it was but apparently it's in the peak of its mating season. We were ten miles off the coast and these buggers kept flocking to our boat, crawling all over the deck and cockpit (and each other) in their frenzied little insect orgy. Then as soon as we got near shore, all the bugs disappeared. Creepy.

We are currently just inside St. Catherine's Sound and they have forecasted some strong winds and possible dangerously large hail (?!) for tonight. The winds have picked up (gusting to 25 knots) but so far no sign of rain or hail. We've got everything locked down and stowed just in case, although I'm curious if the hail will be big enough to keep our rum drinks cool. Maybe we'll set out a bucket to catch some.