downtown marina at beaufort, SC (part 1).

another o'dark early morning as the leaders of the SAIL rally herded everyone back out into the ICW from SJYH with beaufort, SC as the target destination.  the weather gods said that sunday would be a horrible day to travel - torrential rain and high winds - so the plan was to leave on saturday,  get to beaufort, tie up and be safe and comfortable.   the current was ripping through the stono river. luckily, we were on the side of the dock where it made it easy to get going.   some of the others were not so lucky and it took some manhandling (as opposed to boat handling).  this section of the ICW shows off SC's beautiful salt marshes.  SC has over 30 islands categorized into barrier islands, lake islands, river islands and sea islands!   the current is fierce as you weave in and out of rivers and land cuts, following the ICW's magenta line.  in the end, our assessment was that we mostly had the current with us rather than a break even between with and against.  when it was with us, we flew, and when we didn't (2 knots of current against?  gak!), you could really feel the boat slow down.  in fact, tom had accidentally overfilled the water tank and since we knew that we were going to be at a marina that night, we dumped some of it in order to carry less weight through the parts where we would be fighting the current.  when we passed a creek or river mouth, we had to crab the boat sideways to stay in the channel.  as i said earlier in this blog, running the ICW is work - you always have to be on your toes, watching, anticipating, paying attention.  maybe it's less work when you've done it a few times but not only was this our first but we had ducklings as well to watch out for. 

the downtown marina at beaufort is right in the heart of the historic district and the waterfront park/riverwalk area is really very pleasant.  downtown is alive with lots of restaurants, little "shoppes" and quite a number of art galleries as well.  we found a barbecue restaurant called Q on bay that did wings so we decided to get a couple of dozen for takeout to compare with sticky fingers.  the consensus was that sticky fingers was better - we are now chicken wing connoisseurs apparently.  after dinner, we went out again for gelato.  again, the tide shift in this area is something else - the ramps to the floating docks get pretty steep!  there are gates to the docks that are locked after office hours and if you are a marina patron, they give you a code to punch in.  people were leaving the gate ajar instead because the code wasn't an easy one to remember.

i had planned to work that first evening in beaufort but decided to blog first and i was falling asleep writing my own blog!  i was pretty tired.  i told tom that i just needed to lie down for a bit.  tom, himself, took a nap in the salon.  well, i never got up.  i left my computer on, didn't brush my teeth, my hair was still wet from the shower and tom wound up taking consuelo out for her last run because he didn't want to wake me up.  i woke up briefly at 3:30 a.m. when the rain started and at 6:00 a.m. when consuelo whined but tom was already getting up to take her out so i just rolled over and went back to sleep.  i got up for a bit an hour later and then went back to bed and it was so out of character for me that tom started to worry and he texted my brother about it!  i eventually got up though and we had our usual sunday morning pancakes and bacon.  it rained all morning.  no, it POURED!

rain, rain, rain, rain, rain

i discovered that my one and only pair of sneakers that i've had longer than i've had either consuelo or tom was starting to come apart at the seams and so, during a break in the rain, i ran off to the marina office which has a small ship's store.  i was really going to ask if there was a shoe store in town but they had some sperry top-siders on display so i took a look at those and eventually came away with a pair of sneakers that were 50% off.  the left shoe had been on display so long that it was a different shade of not-so-white from its partner that had been left in the box but hey, at $23, i can always dye the shoes.  white is definitely not my color of choice but i thought it was a good deal and i didn't have to work too hard to find a new pair of shoes.  not to mention, they are sperry boat shoes with the non-skid sole, etc. etc. that we all pay the big bucks for.  i am not much of a shopper and tom even less so - that expedition was pretty painless :)

the rain eventually stopped in the late afternoon so we went to town, walked around and eventually bumped into mark and diana.  the marina package that we had been given contained a coupon for a free small bottle of olive oil at one of the shops.  tom forgot the coupon but since diana had hers, i went into the store with her in the hopes that they would give me a bottle, too, without the coupon.  we actually had a choice of different flavors of olive oil or balsamic vinegar and i chose a little bottle of vinegar that said "espresso" on it.  they had some tasting cups so i took a little of the espresso out to tom who was waiting outside with consuelo.  it was pretty good!  we got back to the boat just in time, too.  the heavens opened up and it poured again.  there was also a tornado watch for this area.  lots of rain and lightning - we actually felt a little more secure being amongst all these sailboats with tall masts.  a big blow and heavy rain came and just as quickly as it arrived, it all fizzled out.  lucky us! 

day 2 at beaufort, monday, we snagged the courtesy car and went grocery shopping.  later the sun finally broke out and we went biking around the town and took a bunch of photos.  it really is such a picturesque place - antebellum homes, ancient oaks, spanish moss....  just lovely!  full of atmosphere...

that evening, the town of beaufort treated us to an excellent dinner at one of the waterfront restaurants, saltus river grill - on the menu were ham and pimiento cheese biscuits, quiche lorraine, oysters on the half shell, low country shrimp and grits, sous vide pork tenderloin, yukon gold potato puree, and organic vegetables from the brant family farm (collard greens).  plus a huge gift bag  on our way out - as mentioned before, we are party poopers and leave early :)  tom went to bed and i went to work.

day 3, consuelo got me up at 5:40 a.m.  she must have known something because as soon as we got back in, it started pouring again.  i just kept thinking - monsoon rains!  and that is how it was all morning, on and off.  at 2:00 p.m., arrangements had been made for us to tour the trumpy "freedom" which was docked at the marina. what a gorgeous boat she is!  (how the other half lives).  click on the link to see pics of her because no pics that i took could possibly do justice to this beauty. here are the two that i have.

it just continued to rain all day and all night.  what a wash-out.  still and all, it is just as well that we are tied up safe and sound here in beaufort. 

had to throw in a pic of what i thought was a good-looking boat