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A weather wait in Beaufort, SC

Beaufort SC home

Carriage tour in Beaufort near waterfront

Spent 3 nights in bea-u-ti-ful Beaufort, SC.   This is our third multiple day marina stop and I think this kind of wild spending behavior will need to end soon- or so I fear. Twice, bad weather has kept us an additional night, but really that’s not so bad. A dock is secure and you generally have no worries about dragging; either you or another unlucky boat into you!  Beaufort is a good stop. Plenty of historic homes and enough eateries for any taste and budget- oh yes shops too, but I hardly notice those anymore. Sigh.
The trip from Savannah was easy with delightful sights for our eyes which confirmed my suspicion about the northern section of the ICW in Georgia being much nicer than its southern bad brother. Shortly after leaving Thunderbolt, two picturesque cemeteries greeted us as they sat on small bluffs overlooking the river. The dolphins were especially active and it was easy to spot mama and baby as they swam close together, often not far from the boat.
We like to arrive at marinas as early as possible to get the most for our money. A typical stay is only one night, so we want time for chores and fun stuff. On average, dockage is $1.75/ft, plus electric at roughly $5. Russ docked us (bea-u-ti-fully) alongside the face dock (a long dock that is out in front, usually contains the dockmaster’s office, fuel pumps and a pump out station.) We don’t fit into many slips and many popular marinas have these long face docks because it’s much easier for the transients/cruisers to come and go.
Several boats pulled in the same day we did; two monohulls who I have dubbed the Green Team (Patience and Midori) we’d seen several times since leaving Vero Beach on March 21, another one who was sort of travelling with them and a trawler who seemed to know the mono-folks.  We got to meet everyone when Patience invited the group to their boat for drinks and story hour (or two) and we reciprocated the next night on Ortolan.  Were long overdue for a crowd aboard and we were delighted to give tours and receive the ooohs and aaahs. Some people have never been on a catamaran, so I understand the curiosity. I think I’ve only been on a few monohulls myself.
This easy meet another boat, invite them to your boat or they to yours, show off your boats and in our case plenty of Q&A, happens so naturally that you forget it’s not like that with land folk. No matter what type of boat, or where people hail from, you can find common ground in an instant. Being new cruisers we listen and take mental notes about places to seek out and ones to avoid. Have to admit we also smile inwardly at the going aground tales, but we hope to remain vigilant with just enough wariness to keep us from that fate. If we did ever become badly aground, at least we wouldn’t heel over at some precarious degree, with fear that the rising water might find its way over the gunwales. Probably would simply have ruined our props and/or rudders!

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Savannah-redeems Georgia

Thunderbolt Marina, quite the powerful name.  We had a spot alongside on the face dock and Russ executed a perfect docking although the wind was blowing stink. Current and wind were against us- that’s the best scenario for coming up alongside a dock with a port side tie. We stopped to chat with Cort & Carolyn of Celise/Spirit who arrived the day before and were getting the boat cleared out, cleaned up and ready for storage. Not a fun job, but after electronics troubles, fuel filter clog (a huge chunk of gunk), alternator troubles, they – well Carolyn at least- were ready for the winter cruising to end.
We hopped on the city bus and armed with a map of the historic district poked around for a couple hours. Savannah is so worth a stop. Easy to walk, with tons of shops, eateries, historic parks, buildings and sights.  Back at the dock we chatted with other CT-ites, one a small trawler and the other a Dean catamaran, before walking a short ways to Tubby’s Tank House for dinner. It’s quite the local place and we were lucky to score a table without a wait.
Saturday started off right with a 6 pack of Krispy Kreme donuts delivered by the marina. Saved two in case we didn’t get any on Sunday- which we didn’t. While planning our day, we met Andy from the Nordhavn near us. He’s a former cat and monohull owner who’s considering selling the Nordhavn for a sailing cat. He’s crossed oceans and taken the Nordhavn to the Bahamas but misses the joy of sailing, so we showed him around. Familiar with Maine Cat and was interested in the MC Power 47 a couple years ago, but it was only in the prototype stage then. The guys talked technical boat talk and I provided the woman’s point of view.
Did the bus thing again and 0ur own walking tour of Savannah for nearly six hours. That’s our bus- the blue one- not the double-decker.

bus savannah

The Magic Blue Bus

The city is laid out in a grid, with homes, shops and churches built around 24 squares. 21 remain today as lovely pocket parks with fountains and benches beneath moss-draped oaks. The historic district is expansive, covering a 2.5-square-mile area with 1,200 historic buildings.

savannah cobblestone street

Looking out toward the waterfront and River St.

River Street is the place to be along the water, where you can soak up Savannah’s atmosphere and fun filled ambiance. The street is paved with centuries-old cobblestones once used as ballast in ships that sailed to the port. Our lunch spot was housed in a former cotton warehouse. Many restaurants were designed New Orleans style, with balconies filled with tables for lucky diners.

balcony savannah

Lizzy's balcony dining

Near the far end of River St stands the Waving Girl statue a tribute to Florence Martus. The story is that she lived with her brother at the Cockspur Lighthouse and fell in love with a sailor who asked her to marry him when he returned from his next trip at sea.  As he set sail, she waved good-bye with her handkerchief . Well guess what? He was lost at sea and for the next 45 years she waved at every ship that passed the lighthouse. Now that’s dedication.

waving girl statue

Florence Martus - hopeful forever

The visiting Barquentine, Peacemaker was tied alongside at the waterfront docks, offering free tours so we took them up on that. A gorgeous ship at 150′ with 10,000 sf of sail area, it was built in 1989 on a river bank in Brazil for a Brazilian industrialist. In 2000, an organization know as Twelve Tribes purchased the ship and brought her to Brunswick, GA for major upgrading and a re-design into a practical barquentine rig. Twelve Tribes is organized as a tribal people (think commune-esque) in twelve different geographical areas of the world. Each community consists of one or more households which share a “common purse” in that location, funded by whatever industries that community can establish, such as farming, cafes, stores and services.
The tall ship Peacemaker fits into the Tribe’s vision thus, “we want to be a floating microcosm of the life we live in all of our communities… a training ground to develop wisdom, skills, friendship, loyalty and good character in our young people.” Amen to that!
After visiting the Ships of the Sea museum, we set a pace and a path to take us to The Gastonian B&B where we’d meet up with Cort and Carolyn at 6pm. By this time I needed to rest my walking-sore feet at every park. During our two day exploration, I think we walked through half of the 21 parks.  Our drive to Crystal Saloon (a Savannah institution since 1935) took us down Jones St- the street that gives us “keeping up with the Jones.” The homes, close together as usual, were gorgeous and the street itself was lined with beautiful moss draped oaks and azaleas in full bloom.
The movie Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil was filmed in Savannah; we didn’t get to do the related tour, but something needs to be saved for next time. We enjoyed Savannah and will visit again when we don’t skip right past Georgia.