Beaufort, SC

Beaufort City Marina

We pulled into Beaufort, SC on Friday night.  Beaufort was the furthest north we have ever taken the boat, although we had been in sight of Beaufort once when we attended an MTOA regional get-together at Port Royal Landing Marina.

This time we stayed at Lady's Island Marina, which is just past, but still in sight of the town of Beaufort.  We spent Friday night provisioning and getting the lay of the land.  There is a great hardware store, Grayco, within walking distance of the marina.

The Swing Bridge at Beaufort

On Sunday, we mostly rested since we assumed most of the shops in Beaufort would be closed.  Bright and early Monday morning, I was at Butler marine with my outboard which would not start when we tried it on the way to Beaufort.  They said no promises, but they would try to get to it.

We then set off to the town to see Beaufort for the first time.  Beaufort is a quaint little town on the water with lots of arts and crafts shops as well as tourist shops.  Restaurants are abundant and I'm told they are delicious, although for persons like Marie and myself who eat a whole food plant based diet, there was not much to choose from.

Sue with her two kids

After a full day visiting Beaufort, we returned to the marina just in time to receive a call from Butler Marine telling us they had repaired the outboard!  The news was great since we like to anchor out and without a dinghy, we are stuck on the boat.

When we returned to the boat, we discovered a Nordic Tug had pulled in behind us and a little while later we met the owners, Peter and Sue.  This was their fist cruise, having just purchased the boat in the Bahamas.  They are a really great couple and since we were leaving in the morning for Charleston, we agreed to try to meet up there for dinner when they arrived a little behind us.

The seagull is the little spec under the jet

The first day out on the way to Charleston was a beautiful day.  As we started out of the marina, military jets were doing touch and goes over our heads and made for a great, if not loud, show.  At one point, a seagull challenged us and one of the jets to a race, and we were quick to take up the challenge.  It didn't take long for the jet to win the race and yes, we came in last place.... to a seagull.  Life on a trawler!

Marie relaxing on the bow

After the air show, we had a long relaxing day on the water.  The seas were calm and skies were sunny.  The tide was against us most of the way so it was a slow 5 and half knots, but we enjoyed the sights.

One of the cuts

Along with the pretty marshes and beautiful homes, there were several cuts we had to go through that were narrow and shallow.  Luckily, we had planned our departure to gives us plenty of water as we went through the cuts.

Storm on the horizon

As the day neared the end, we found ourselves in one of those mathematical dilemmas that boaters sometimes face.  A huge storm began to chase us north.  Normally we would just anchor and hunker down before the rain could hit.  But in this case, we had one more cut to get through while we still had high water under us.  If we anchored short of the cut, we lose half the day the next day waiting for the water to come in.  But could we get to the anchorage on the other side of the cut before the storm got to us?  Calculations flew and decisions were made and we continued on.

The storm that hit us

We made it through the cut and found our anchorage none too soon.  Just as we dropped anchor, the rain began.  It came in waves and at first it was just a normal storm like many others we had been through.  But then around 10pm, the sky fell down.  The storm intensified and we were spun in circles on our anchor.  The wind was strong and sustained for about an hour.  The ballad of the SS Minnow came to my mind - "The tiny ship was tossed."  Water was leaking in everywhere possible and even came in places we didn't think was possible!  Suddenly, we heard a horrendous noise on the flybridge and Marie commented, "There went the bimini."  The banging above continued for what seemed like forever, but we did not dare venture out to see what the source of the noises were because the boat was pitching and rolling too severely to safely go outside.  Although the winds eventually died down to a normal windy, the rains continued well into the night and so we finally went to sleep in the early morning hours.

Whats left of the flybridge

In the morning, we went outside to survey the damage.  As Marie had predicted, our bimini top was destroyed.  It had ripped apart at almost every seam and zipper.  Some of the screwed in fasteners for the bows were ripped out of the wood and the screws were bent.  Two of the wire tie-downs were torn apart.  It is a total loss and will have to be replaced.

We straightened everything up the best we could and continued on to Charleston.  Another experience under our belt to give us another war story to tell at a future dinner or get-together.