A Day in Beaufort, SC

Did you think “Bew-fort” when you read the title? Be honest, or did you think “Bow-fort”? Extra points if you got it right and thought “bew-fort”.  A very short travel day in order to provision, fill a propane tank and stock up at Bill’s Liquor Store- hey it’s right next door to Grayco hardware where they do a great job with filling tanks at a great price. This was accomplished via taxi; one of those rare times we need to use one. Weather being perfect, we used the anchorage near the marina. Filled the diesel tanks, pumped out the holding tank and filled up the water tanks; no point in neglecting the marina completely.

No neglecting of the sun gods either; the high on Monday was 74 and mostly sunny. I snuck in a short stint on the tramps for the free Vitamin D. After a short and fun show of Anchoring Antics by m/v LoriAnn, we dinghied into town for window shopping, a swing on one of the terrific porch swings along the waterfront and dinner at Panini’s. Delicious food and we took home enough for dinner the next night. Add a salad and poof- my job is done!

BEAUFORT, SC WATERFRONT

Been keeping an eye on leaky sail drives- what? We’re back to this problem again? Looks like that might be the case.
Contacting our friends at Yanmar. Will we end up at Marathon Marina again for repairs?

Two Cats in a Creek

One of the first cruising boats we met- oh we met the owners too of course- was Indigo a 42’ Chris White catamaran.  We’d ended our day early and stopped at a marina right alongside the ICW in Coinjock, NC. The place is as rustic as it sounds. Indigo ended their day early also, which for them is 5pm; typically they are in delivery mode. They gave us good tips on stops to make along the way and a few spots where jumping off the ICW would be fun.  Their journey ends in the Bahamas and they use the spurt method ; push hard for a week, leave the boat at a good marina for a month, fly in, provision, travel hard for a week and after a few spurts – voila! Bahamas.

Saw them once in Florida as they zoomed past on their get to Lake Worth spurt. We keep in touch via email from time to time. Saturday night, after a slew of emails with each of us trying to determine how far we’d get, select a decent creek and all that daily cruising fun stuff it all came together. As the first to arrive (not that we are fast, but Indigo began their day 30 miles north of Georgetown), we launched our dinghy and readied for happy hour. Yes, they looked as we remembered and we caught up while Linda’s chicken was roasting away. Good news: plenty of good sailing in the Exumas.

Dinghy service provided for Indigo

Early the next morning- earlier than usual due to the clock reset back to EDT- we spotted our first bald eagle. Much of the morning’s trip took us through the Cape Romaine Wildlife Refuge. Plenty of sights to ogle.

BALD EAGLE HANGS OUT BY THE ICW

Passed through Charleston Harbor and picked up of first large pack of boats at the Wappoo Creek Bascule Bridge.  Left them all behind and anchored for the night in another creek- well this was a river, but not a very wide one.