Thurs-Fri May 28/29: Beaufort interlude

In which we socialize - from a safe distance...

We met the previous owners of the boat, Dale and Amy Kirby, at the Blackstone Cafe for an early breakfast.  It turns out Dale is one of our many (4 - and may I, again, remind you that NONE of them are related to me by blood) loyal readers!!

He can certainly relate, in a very visceral way, to all of what we go through.  I can't tell if he is happy to be just reading about those adventures, or sad not to be having them. I keep trying to talk them into sharing the boat with us, when our Loop is over, but I'm not sure I'm having any traction!  It was very fun to see them, although it was strange to be in a restaurant again.  We tried to all stay 6 feet apart, but you do wonder if the cooks in the back are sneezing into your food.  Great food - I had to order a giant sweet roll to go for the friends that were coming later in the day (I ended up eating it and I had to get another and then act like it was the original roll).

When we are outside we take off our masks, but in any interior space we wear them.  That is often an uncomfortable experience in the south as the wearing of masks has become so politicized. We don't feel we are making any statement with them, other than that we care about other people, and our own health.

At 10am we met a small group for Janet's Walking Tour of Beaufort.  We are in the habit of just walking around by ourselves and reading about the places we visit, but I really thought we might get more out of a tour with someone knowledgeable, and energetic. It was great.  A cute little village center, incredible houses, lots of information about the movies filmed in Beaufort (The Great Santini, Prince of Tides, parts of Forrest Gump, The Big Chill - the list is long), civil war info and more.  A very worth while 3 hours - although we were absolutely drenched in sweat at the end.  Hot and humid.  We agreed we can't live in that combination without a sea breeze.

The pandemic has given him long hair - but it hasn't changed his sense of humor

When the branch of a live oak reaches the ground and stats a new tree it is called 'angels

 wings'

The Gullah believed that blue would keep the evil spirits out of your house It is also said that a spider will not spin a web from blue to white.

Later in the afternoon our friend Deb and her son, Dan, arrived from Atlanta for a 2-day 'authentic boat experience'. (You can sign up for yours at any time - operators standing by). That meant borrowing their car to get groceries and bossing Dan around in the name of 'learning about boats'.  Then I made Deb take me to the Chocolate Tree store 10 minutes before they closed because I HAD to buy Stocky Rockies, which I had read about (like Rocky Road chocolate clusters but with raspberry marshmallows.  RASPBERRY!  CHOCOLATE!  MARSHMALLOWS! Like eating a little piece of heaven). We settled them onto the boat as well as possible, but it is hard not to worry about the effects of the small space, heat/humidity, noise, etc on company.  Deb was very wise, in that she expected it to be like Boy Scout camping and was therefore not disappointed.  In fact there were no boys whacking each other with sticks every five seconds, so that was a plus.

Photo Cred: Deb

After breakfast the next morning we cruised down the ICW for a bit, letting both get a taste of driving.

Then we anchored off the channel and hung about for the afternoon, taking the kayaks for their maiden voyage and then taking naps.

We even arranged to have dolphins show up playing in the bow wake so that Deb/Dan could freak out over that!

Later we headed back to the marina but used a mooring ball rather than the dock so that our guests would experience it ALL.  AND - I taught Dan to knit...

That's just the kind of hosts we are. Sadly I had made the mistake of telling Deb about derelict boats and how I worried about ghosts - between that and the spooky sound of the dolphins in the area surfacing and blowing throughout the night, I'm afraid she didn't get much sleep.

I slept great, though...  Just saying.

Deb's son, Nick, did this wonderful Tee Shirt art for us - LOVE!

The moon and the anchor light!

Gorgeous lightening storm - like so many of the things we see, a picture just doesn't do it justice.