Position: N32 25.195 W080 39.350
We raise anchor and leave Tom Point Creek on Friday, December 7th, a chilly and cloudy morning. Our ‘friends’ at NOAA weather tell us it’s going to get up into the mid-sixties this afternoon, but it’s wooly jumpers, caps and gloves, and foul weather gear this morning.
We work our way down the waterway, dodging shoals and making pretty good time. We decide to give the Ashepoo-Coosaw
Cutoff (we love the names down here) a miss due to its reputation for a large and growing shoal at it’s lower end. Low tide today is around noon there, and that’s about when we would be transiting. Instead, we follow the Ashepoo River to its mouth in the St. Helena Sound and work our way back up the Coosaw River to rejoin the ICW. In the sound we find a shrimp boat named ‘Hustler’ with his nets out looking much like a cormorant drying it’s wings. Julie calls him on the radio to ask how he’d like us to pass and, after a brief, pleasant exchange we gradually pass in front and leave him in our wake. The other reason we take the St. Helena Sound is so that we can actually have some room for a sail today. Rachel IS a sailboat after all, and it’s been ages since we’ve been able to sail. No such luck – there was absolutely no wind and we again spent the day motoring.
We arrive in Beaufort in mid afternoon and drop anchor. The sun is out and it’s time to get out our shorts and tee shirts! In North Carolina, Beaufort is pronounced “Bow-fort”. In South Carolina, it’s pronounced “Byu-fert”. They’re both named after the Duke of Beaufort and no-one seems to know why they’re pronounced differently.
Beaufort is a friendly town. We call up Lady’s Island Marina to see if they have a dinghy dock we can use and are offered its use for free. We dinghy over and walk about a half mile up to the Publix supermarket for provisions. We are packing our bags and our little folding crate cart ready for the walk back. A friendly woman walks up and asks if we’re on a boat. We say yes and she proceeds to give us a ride back to the marina dock in her car!
On Saturday morning we do laundry and visit the hardware store. A sign on the Laundromat window intrigues us: “No loitering or no drinking”. We wonder if this means you can drink if you’re not loitering and loiter if you’re not drinking. We leave not knowing, but we did neither, just in case!
Around mid-day we dinghy over to the free town dock across the river, right in historic downtown. A walk around the old part of town, followed by lunch at one of the eateries along the waterfront are in order. As we’re eating we overhear the waitress telling a woman at the next table about the boat Christmas parade scheduled for this evening! We get the details and decide this is a must, since it will be the third floating Christmas parade we’ve seen in three weeks – Little River, Charleston, and Beaufort. We’re definitely on a roll! We return as the sun is setting and tie up again at the town dock for front row seats. Armed with appetizers and a glass of wine the very creative “floats” made for a lovely evening. A night-time dinghy ride back to Rachel and we’re done for the evening.
Bobbing in Byufert,
