Beaufort, South Carolina!

This blog will chronicle our (Pat and Patty Anderson's) 

cruising adventures on the Great Loop!

DAY 19 - Savannah to Beaufort, S.C.

After returning our key card to the office, Andrew help us cast off and we headed to the fuel dock, where we fueled up (we calculated 5.0 statute miles per gallon, running at 2,000 RPM, which does wonders for fuel economy!) and reluctantly left this great little marina, headed for Beaufort with wonderful memories of Isle of Hope and Savannah. This is the Beaufort pronounced "Byew-furt" (South Carolina), not the one pronounced "Bow-fort" (North Carolina). We figured we had about a six and a half hour run, and so we left about 9:00 a.m.

Daydream Anchored in Beaufort Harbor

Miscalculation! What we failed to account for is that Isle of Hope is about 14 miles south of Savannah!  Add two hours at our speed! Instead of getting in at 3:30 p.m., we did not arrive until 5:30 p.m.! And as soon as we had anchored close in, right near the reeds, there was a torrential downpour! We scrambled to get the camperback all closed up! The squall soon passed and I was able to take Baxter to shore to the boat ramp by the Downtown Marina in the kayak a short paddle away from our anchorage. I took this picture from the kayak after returning from taking Baxter to shore!

But again, I get ahead of myself. The trip itself was quite interesting, not all in a good way! First off, getting out of Georgia on the ICW can be a bit of a challenge, as there are many islands and many channels.  More than once we had to stop and figure out where we were supposed to be going, even with the magenta line on Garmin Blue Chart. It actually showed up best on Garmin Blue Chart on my iPhone zoomed way out, and we saw our way clearly. We finally crossed the Savannah River and were in South Carolina! When we don't know where we are or which way to go, we stop until we figure it out!

Home on South Carolina ICW

Another Home on South Carolina ICW

I took a few pictures of some the big homes on the ICW in South Carolina, which frankly do not rival the grand homes in Florida or Georgia! I should have taken a few pictures of those for comparison, but I didn't. I think Florida and Georgia rich folk are just a bit richer than South Carolina rich folk! That is not to say these are shabby little homes, they are not, but they are just not as large and fancy as the Florida and Georgia McMansions! One thing we wondered is, why do these all these houses have chimneys? When would they ever need to burn a fire in a fireplace here, where it never gets cold?

Port Royal Sound - Sea and Sky!

The cruise was uneventful until we got to Port Royal Sound. This is a large body of water that is open to the North Atlantic Ocean. It was sort of like Bellingham Bay on a good day - pushes you around a bit but doesn't knock your fillings out! I don't want to think about what it would have been like on a bad day! There are no ICW red / green markers on Port Royal Sound except where you enter it and where you exit it. The route (the magenta line!) takes you from the entrance east directly toward the ocean until at the very last moment it turns north, and then northwest to go to the Beaufort River. It was a bit unnerving to stare directly at the North Atlantic in front of us for so long!

We finally got to Beaufort, and decided to anchor in as close to the dinghy dock / boat ramp as possible. We anchored in about 15 feet of water after checking Garmin Blue Chart tides, which told us the tidal swing would be no more than six feet. All the other boats anchored here are way farther away.

We were saddened to learn today of the passing of our good friend Karen Youngman on Easter Sunday. Karen and Lex Youngman were our good friends in the Peace Corps from training in Austin, Texas, on through our two years in Turkey. We had kept in touch ever since returning from Turkey in 1970. We visited the Youngmans in Charlotte in 2010, and were planning another reunion in Southport, North Carolina, as we progressed up the Atlantic ICW. This is now not to be, and we really will miss our friend Karen.

DAY 20 - April 20,2017

Pat and Baxter in Kayak in Fog

Today was our day in Beaufort! As usual, this morning I took Baxter to shore first thing, and it was a bit foggy when I paddled back. Patty got a nice picture of us in the fog! We decided to stay another night, because we could not possibly see Beaufort in less than a day, and we are truly glad for our decision. This is an absolutely delightful place, full of history and charm! What better way to see it than by taking a horse carriage tour? We bought our tickets and had a little time to walk around before our carriage ride.

Rhett House

St. Helena Anglican Church

We walked, on recommendation of the lady in the Marina Ship's Store, to the St.Helena Anglican Church, and on the way to the church, we passed the Rhett House. The Rhett family goes way back in Beaufort history, and Rhett descendants still live here today!  We later leaned from our tour guide on the horse carriage ride that Margaret Mitchell was inspired to create Rhett Butler from composites of the Rhett family of Beaufort and the Butler family of Atlanta for Gone with the Wind.  The church was closed but we strolled around the St. Helena cemetery. We saw some of the Rhett tombstones in the St. Helena cemetery, along with a lot of other tombstones with dates that just boggle the mind, coming from the Northwest where 1850 sort of marks the beginning of modern settlement.

On the way back from our walk, I was taken by the moss in the live oak trees. It made me think of the Don Williams song Good Old Boys Like Me, "I can still hear the wind in the live oak trees...and those Williams boys, they still mean a lot to me, Hank and Tennessee..."

Moss in the Live Oak Tree

Our horse carriage

Angus

When we got back from our walking tour, we had only a short wait for our horse carriage tour. We were on the Sea Island carriage tour. There are several different horse carriage tour companies but they all sell tickets from the same ticket booth and start from the same location in front of the marina. There is a very cool watering trough that the horses all drink from between their tours. Our horse was "Angus," and a fine horse he was!

We went by a great many fine homes dating from the 1700s and 1800s. There are very strict Historic District regulations here, but they only date from the 1970s, so whatever damage was done to the Historic District, mainly incongruous 1970s era homes, remain today. As in Savannah, the tour folks thought it would be interesting to tell us which movie stars stayed in which historic homes for which movies - which it actually was not, except for the Barbara Streisand story.  Barbara was here making The Prince of Tides. She was offended by the frequent jet plane fly-overs from the three nearby airbases (Parris Island is near here, where the Marines train). She actually called the Commander demanding that he change the schedule for the flights! He instead ordered especially low fly-overs over the house in which she was staying! Here are a few of the historic homes.

After the carriage tour, we had a wonderful lunch at Panini on Main Street, and then returned to Daydream. While we were having our sundowners, we heard a horn honk and looked over to see our friends from Honest John's Fish Camp, Jonathan Arthur and Rosa Cross on Jonathan's C-Dory 22 Cruiser Salty! They had left Melbourne Beach, FL, on the 18th, and had done a couple of 100+ mile days and here they were in Beaufort on the 20th! By contrast, we had left Melbourne Beach on the 7th and got here only one day earlier than they did!, Tomorrow we motor off for an anchorage as unknown, but we will be in Charleston on the 22nd, with reservations for City Marina for two days!  Stay tuned, the next installment may be tomorrow or in three days, who knows!

Salty Anchored in Beaufort Harbor

Jonathan and Rosa on Salty