11/14/13-11/17/13 - Beaufort

Left Charleston at 10:00 a.m. after four days.  Only planned on being there for two days, but the weather wasn't good enough to leave as planned.  We're heading for Beaufort, SC.  It was a beautiful travel day and we arrived at the anchorage about 5:00 p.m.  We anchored for the night and had dinner on board.

The next day, Friday (11/15), we took the dinghy into town and had a late lunch.  Beaufort, which is a National Historic Landmark District, is probably one of the prettiest towns you'll ever see.  Without a doubt, it has the best waterfront park that I've ever seen, with the type of swings that people would have on their front porch lining the river walk, as well as tables and chairs for people to sit and enjoy a snack or meal. 

A number of movies have been filmed here, such as Forrest Gump, The Big Chill, The Great Santini, and Prince of Tides, to name a few.  You can take a horse drawn buggy ride to view these movie sites and/or the historic district.  We chose to walk.

Prince of Tides was filmed at this house.

Now you know I have to give some Civil War history of the town.  Oops, I mean War of Northern Aggression.  (Sorry John)  The town fell to the Union Army early in the war and a lot of its residents left their homes and fled the town.  The slaves ran rampant for a while, ransacking the vacant homes and acting like they owned the place, until the Union finally put a stop to it.  And, to add insult to injury, unbeknownst to the homeowners that fled, the Union created a tax on the town's properties and most of the now vacant homes were sold at tax sale.  Some of the original homeowners were able to get their homes back after the war, but not without a lot of hassle and red tape.

On Saturday, John was ready to take the dinghy to town, but I was lollygagging.  It's a good thing though because when I was finally ready, John noticed that the bilge pump kept coming on.  He went into the engine room and discovered that our sea strainer closure bolt broke.  This was periodically creating minor flooding in the engine room and could have potentially sunk the boat if left unattended.  John was able to fix it with an old bolt that we had on board.  Thank goodness for lollygagging.  LOL

Eventually we took the dinghy to town.  While I did laundry, John rented a bike and rode to the pharmacy to refill a prescription.  We were told the pharmacy was only a mile or so from the historic district.  Not!!  He did a half marathon to get there and says he's now ready for the Ironman competition.  On the way to the pharmacy he passed a cemetery that he described as a mini Arlington.  We later found out that it is the Beaufort National Cemetery, which is the only national cemetery with Confederate soldiers who have been laid to rest (199 of 14,000).  I just wish we had a picture of it to post here.

We had an early dinner and came back to the boat in time to watch college football.  Figured if we anchored for free, we could afford to eat out.  There were a number of young Marine basic training graduates in town with their families and girlfriends.  Brought back memories of when my son, Doug, graduated from Parris Island. 

The anchorage from the shore.

 

We'll be leaving in the morning and heading to Georgia.  Currently 727 miles south of the Bohemia River.