Beaufort SC

We are in Beaufort South Carolina now and we must say that this is everything that we expected the south to be and more! We’re on a mooring, something that we try not to do due to the expense but the town moorings here are only $20 a day and include showers, laundry and better yet – a courtesy car, its great to be able to drive again! The marina is right downtown so we are within walking distance to the beautiful historical district and all the cute boutique like stores! Yesterday we went on a horse and buggy tour through the town, what an amazing place, so much history. The houses here are incredible, lovely architecture and so different from what we are used to seeing. All have incredible double balconies and staircases gracing the front. The ceilings of the verandas are either painted robins egg blue to ward off spirits or black indicating there has been a death or tragedy in the house. It seems that this is a very Spiritual and/or superstitious area. Most of the old homes still have their original kitchens that look like small houses on the property, the kitchens weren’t attached to the houses so as to keep the houses cooler and in case of fire it didn’t affect the main house. We have seen quite a few Southern Live Oak trees, which are huge and have amazing branches that reach down and across the ground. A lot of the bricks that are used around this area for fences or houses were brought here as ballast in the ships and were dumped in the harbor.

        We have also seen lots of Spanish Moss hanging from the trees everywhere here, actually it is not Spanish or Moss but a type of air plant, we also learned that you don’t touch it because it is full of red bugs and chiggers, we don’t know what those are but we do know that we don’t want them! Richard and I took a walk in an old cemetery today and something bite him on the foot – it freaked him out so much so that he didn’t want to walk there on the grass any more!! He said he thought it was a burr but when he touched it it flew off… Luckily I had Benadryl in my purse.

Speaking of Richard, the morning that we were heading to Beaufort he broke a tooth… When we arrived he went over to a dental office that happened to be right next to the marina and they said that they could get him in on Saturday morning, we were really pleased with that! Later that day they called back and had an opening for 830 the next morning… now that is service.

   Friday morning we did boat chores, I went to shore and did laundry while Richard changed the oil, and zincs, and worked on extending the cable for the WIFI. I must admit my chores on the boat are pretty simple. We dirty very few clothes on board as we didn’t bring many and it takes very little time to clean a 37 by 11’9 foot space. After lunch we headed to town and did some sightseeing and checked out some stores. We went into an amazing Gullah Historical Art Gallery, Gullah is the name for the African descendants in this area, and they have their own dialect, traditions and Spirituality. The owner of the store was a very interesting man and we really enjoyed learning from him. We purchased a beautiful locally made sweet grass basket.

Beaufort has been the site of over 30 movies in recent years including Prince of Tides and Forest Gump. Well you would never believe who we saw in our wandering today  FOREST!!!!!!

Saturday was a wild day for us! Winds were 40kts from the north and it was REALLY COLD and REALLY WINDY, Richard was up a lot during the night checking things out and adjusting ropes. At 7am I got up as I knew he was exhausted. (Richard spoils me by always being the one to get up) It was freezing, so I quickly bundled up and opened the hatch boards to have a look and I was shocked to see the stern of the 49 foot trawler beside us about 2 feet from our stern! So much for letting Richard sleep in… He was up like a shot and ended up jumping onto the trawler to fend it off and to wake up the owners. Looking around the mooring field we could see numerous boats doing the mooring field shuffle fending off other boats. The marina said the moorings were for 35 foot boats but it is too close for even that size. We were getting ready to go anchor somewhere even though the winds were crazy but thankfully the trawler ended up going to the dock so we stayed. Unfortunately the impellor on our heater wasn’t working and that was one of the few spare parts that Richard doesn’t have with us (who knew that we’d need to use a heater!) so we spent the day bundled up in jackets and blankets – It’s the third time that I’ve had socks on on this trip and I actually had two pairs on! We even had candles and the lantern on for warmth.

Sunday was abit warmer as we headed to shore for Church. Richard had asked about churches while we were at the Gullah Art Gallery and the owner had mentioned a Baptist Church down the road so that is where we decided to attend. It turned out that he was also the Pastor of the Church and we were blessed with attending an amazingly powerful service and sermon, everyone was so friendly and welcoming. It was very different in the way the service was conducted which was interesting. Again it was a two-hour service and the time just seem to fly by, the choir was very powerful with beautiful voices and the hymns and songs were very different from what we are used to hearing.

After Church we had lunch at a nice little café down the road and we caught a peek at Forest having his lunch there as well! Then off to the grocery store to fill up our recently defrosted freezer. Once back at the boat we did some chores to prepare for our departure tomorrow, our plan is to leave around 11am and take the outside route to Florida. We had planned to do the ICW the whole way but Richard is anxious to shake out the sails and give the motor a break. I’ve always been convinced that Richard has an obsession of climbing the mast and it surfaced again today as up he went to remove a fitting on the backstay that was catching on the topping lift. After a few more chores we stowed the dinghy back on deck and we are ready for our departure. Beaufort has been a really lovely town to visit and if it were in Nova Scotia we would surely consider moving here!