Our cruise to Beaufort, SC on Friday, April 25, was wonderful--until our arrival at Lady's Island Marina. We arrived during the halfway point of the rising tide and with a relatively stiff breeze blowing. We had to approach a very narrow assigned slip with strong current and wind pushing us from behind, conditions which significantly increased the difficulty of docking. Lon had to abort the docking process twice, and as he was retreating the second time the current grabbed us and turned C.A.R.I.B. II sideways to the dock. We ended up "parallel parked" against a couple of boats. Not a good place to be, but there was nothing that could be done to move the boat until slack tide a few hours later. We set an anchor to hold C.A.R.I.B. II steady and went to the Friday night $10 steak dinner at the Fillin' Station.
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| Temporarily anchored awaiting slack tide |
We had a nice visit with a former St. Petersburg marina neighbor of ours, Rich Fieldhouse, who had his sailboat at another marina in the Beaufort area.
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| Rich and Pat |
In the end, we were able to easily get the boat off anchor and docked after the current eased. Our starboard railing sustained some damage, but nothing that can't be repaired. It certainly was a learning experience for us.
We later realized that, although we would not want to repeat that particular docking experience, it was a blessing in disguise. Our original intent was to spend only one night in Beaufort and do a long cruising day on Saturday to reach Charleston. We knew that Lon's mom was dying, and thought that Charleston would be a good place to leave the boat and catch a flight to Minnesota. However, the difficult docking left Pat a bit unsettled and we decided to extend our stay. We received the call about the death of Lon's mom at 11 am on Saturday while we were at a local vet's office making arrangements for Zipper's care. Had we not had our little docking adventure on Friday we would most likely have received the call while on the boat in the middle of nowhere, with no provisions yet made for Zipper, and with-as we later found out-no space for us at the marinas in Charleston. Instead, we had already found a wonderful vet tech, Patti Wright, to care for Zipper; a flight out of Savannah was easily arranged; and the marina at Lady's Island was terrific both with respect to price and staff (dock master Steve Stanforth is a hoot). We are thanking God for our bent railing!
We arrived back in Beaufort yesterday (May 1) after several cold and wet--with snow!--days in Minnesota. Weather aside, it was good to be with family.
We spent a few hours today (May 2) in historic downtown Beaufort. I was there 20 years ago, but this was Lon's first visit. Beaufort has been used for filming a number of movies, including "The Big Chill" and "Forrest Gump." As was true in Savannah, the restored houses in Beaufort are absolutely beautiful. Many of them pre-date the Civil War. The oldest building in town is The Parish Church of St. Helena, built in 1724. It was used as a stable during the Revolutionary War and as a hospital during the Civil War.
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| Pat at "The Castle" |
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| Lon in "The Point" historic neighborhood |
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| The "Prince of Tides" film site |
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| The Big Chill House |
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| Another beautiful Beaufort home |
I guess being surrounded by all of this history must get overwhelming after a while, so it's good to see that at least one resident finds some humor in the situation.
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| Plaque at a home in the historic district of Beaufort |
Tomorrow we get back underway and hope to be on the outskirts of Charleston by late afternoon.
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