Beaufort, SC

Blue Heaven Rendezvous #6
Beaufort, SC

After a peaceful night in Rock Creek we left around 8am to once again motor dead into the wind through Ashepoo Coosaw Cutoff. We past a dredge called the Jeannie Lea. What a coincidence, the name of our female sailing buddy from Prince Edward Island! The dredge was definitely needed there, because the depth was equal to our draft. We proceeded down the Coosaw River to Beaufort River and finally to Beaufort.

We arrived in Factory Creek (on the port, north of the bridge) at noon. After lunch we used our dinghies to go across the river to Beaufort. They have a great dinghy dock and beautiful waterfront with benches and swings to sit and watch life go by.

Once again we walked around looking at the beautiful southern homes with the hanging Spanish moss on the trees. We also hit the few stores that were open on a Sunday, and treated ourselves to ice cream cones at a cute ice cream parlor.

Back at the boat, Blue Heaven hosted cocktail hour with the Leas, and Bill, Carmen and John from a boat named Respite. Earlier in the day Jim had hailed them, because he saw their Canadian flag and was interested in the home port saying Oriental, NC. He discovered they had just purchased the boat from Oriental and were taking it to a marina in Florida where it would be left for the holidays and to get some work done. Then they planned to come back and cruise around Florida to get used to the boat. John had brought his concertina (a very small accordion-like instrument) and played some sea shanties for us. It was great fun having our own concert onboard. Darkness closed in so they headed back to their boats.

Respite planned to do the ICW and Estelle was going outside to St. Simon Island. Blue Heaven had a decision to make. Over dinner we decided to try our first overnight in the ocean. Light winds and low seas were predicted which helped to come to our conclusion. This would save us a lot of time doing the constant motoring on the winding rivers of Georgia. We will miss Savannah this way, but next time maybe.