Beaufort, North Carolina

     Here I am on the waterfront in Beaufort, NC, another waterfront village that likes to call itself "historic," and so here is a very short history lesson:  Beaufort was founded in 1709 and is the third oldest town in North Carolina.  It has a sea-faring, boat-building, and fishing heritage that also includes pirates--most notably the famous Blackbeard who plied the waters here for many years.  On a side note, Blackbeard's flagship, the Queen Anne's Revenge, was discovered in the late 1990s only 2 miles from Beaufort's waterfront and is a major tourist draw (they limit the number of divers who can go down to see it).
     The heart of the city is Front Street, along the waterfront, where you can find the usual collection of restaurants, gift shops, art galleries, pubs and quite a few restored Victorian buildings and homes.  Once again, I will let photos tell the story.

  
     This is a shot of Front Street, which looks to me a lot like any other main street in small town America.  In the middle is Clawsons (red sign) which is a very good restaurant (more shrimp & grits for me, flounder for Art) located in a building that has a long history.  All variety of shops and services have been housed there, and you can see much of this history inside the restaurant like the photo of the entry below:

     Next on my brief tour of the city are a few of the old homes that we always enjoy seeing in these small towns--and knowing they are there is what gets us out for that much needed walk after a day on the water.

     Going back to the marina, I have a few more photos of the waterfront to share (mostly because it was really very nice and definitely scenic):

A look at the small park that separates the marina from Front Street.  The building on the left is a dock-side restaurant and bar.  The marina gave us tokens for free beer, so we spent our last night there downing a few with fellow boaters who we had met along the way.

     Here is our boat in the marina with art swabbing the upper deck (okay, so no one uses that term any more, but I couldn't resist and he was in the process of washing the boat anyway when I took this shot).  Another interesting note:  the sailboat to the left of us came across the Atlantic from England!  It was owned by a very nice young couple and I can't believe they were brave enough to sail all that way in a relatively small boat.  

     And just when we were thinking we had a pretty nice boat ourselves (and not so small either), along came this monster and we were instantly humbled:

That's our little boat on the far left.

     Back to a little more history for my last note on this stop.  Only a block off Front Street is the Beaufort Historical Association offices and they have a small park where several of the more famous old buildings have been located and restored.  Here is Art in front of the jail, which was used until the 1950s!!

     But even more interesting was the cemetery, the Old Burying Ground, which is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.  It was deeded to the town in 1731, but some of the graves are much older.  Buried here are soldiers from the Indian wars, the Revolutionary War, the War of 1812 and the Civil War (both Union and Confederate soldiers) as well as local citizens.  Most of the graves face East because those buried there wanted to face the sun when they arose on "Judgement Morn."  The grounds are beautiful and well-kept as you can see in these photos:

     The stories of several of those buried there are worth sharing, but I will limit this to the one I like best--the grave of a girl buried in a barrel of rum (bet that got your attention).  Here is what happened:  In the 1700s an English family emigrated to Beaufort and their daughter grew up with a desire to see her native homeland.  She persuaded her parents to let her go to England and her father promised her mother that he would return the girl safely.  The girl loved her visit to England, but died on the journey home.  She would have been buried at sea, but her father wanted to keep his promise and so he bought a barrel of rum from the Captain, placed her body in it and brought her back to Beaufort for burial.  This is a photo of her grave:

     That's it for my Beaufort report.  Our next destination is Portsmouth, Virginia.

Heading to Beaufort, North Carolina

     Our trip from Swansboro to Beaufort was a short one (only 24 miles) and not particularly exciting (no bombs going off or anything like that), but a few things caught our eye along the way.  First is this campground right on the water and next to a very busy bridge!  I prefer setting up my tent in a more remote location, but maybe there's something here I didn't see from the water.

     And as we cruised up the ICW, we saw the usual variety of housing, but I think these cute docks were the reason I took this photo.

     Once again, we saw Osprey nests on the majority of channel markers.  I can't believe these birds will ever have a population problem.

     This next photo, purple martin houses on poles, is one we saw throughout the Carolinas without knowing what they really were.  I read that the Indians used to put out gourds for the martins to nest in and now, anywhere East of the Mississippi, they are completely dependent on humans for their nesting sites.  And they are especially popular in coastal areas because martins love to dine on insects, especially mosquitoes.  So, no bug zappers here--they just put up martin houses along their docks.

     Another common sight on this leg of the journey (actually on most of the trip since leaving Florida) were the crabbers seting out their traps.  I guess this guy stored his equipment on the banks of the waterway.  Once these guys get all their traps out, it can be an obstacle course for us to navigate through without getting one caught in the propeller.  So far, so good.

 

     Then, before we knew it, we were out of the wilds and back into civilization heading into Beaufort, N.C.  This is a shot of one of the phosphorus shipping operations along the waterway into town. 

       And I guess those phosphorus shipping titans were not such good pilots--just look at the damage they did to the bridge pilings right next to their operation.  It is always a little unnerving to cruise by a sight where someone else bashed in their boat.

     Even though this was a major shipping/industrial area, we cruised only a few miles past and into Beaufort, a charming seaside village with a rich history.  That will be my next post.

More North Carolina Coast

     Since we would be leaving our marina by the same route that we arrived the night before when we scraped the bottom, we paid attention to the tide tables and left when there was plenty of water!  No problems cruising on out, and you can judge the water level at this picnic spot next to the first bridge we went under (I think that's a parking meter next to the palm tree):

     Our first interesting sight as we cruised along the canal, was this rather unique lawn ornament.  We have seen the usual statues of deer, gnomes and an occasional plastic flamingo, but this is the very first, ah giraffe??

     From the water, it looked almost life-sized.  I sure would like to call these people up and find out the story behind it.

    

      Not much else interesting along today's route until we got onto Camp Lejeune property.  The ICW takes you right through the base.  It is the largest Marine base on the East coast with some 45,000 plus soldiers there.  Obviously, we had to deal with the usual military restrictions (eyes straight ahead, don't wander from the course--okay, just kidding), but there were warnings and restrictions posted all along the waterway.  And then we came across this sign:

No lights flashing, so off we go.

    Not more than 2 minutes after passing this sign, we felt, as well as heard, two loud booms and it scared the crap out of me.  All Art could say was, "Incoming!"  I swear I expected to see an explosion in the water in front of the boat.  Obviously, nothing happened, but it sure got our attention that we were on military property.  After that, we continued to hear distant explosions and saw a lot of destroyed military vehicles and huts, obviously bombed during their practice drills.
     The next thing Art said was, "Oh look, Ospreys!"  As you might remember from previous posts, we have seen Osprey nests on almost every channel marker (and I included a few photos), so I wasn't too excited until I realized he meant the plane and not the bird.  It was a pretty cool sight, but I wasn't quick enough to get a  photo.
     Once we traveled the 10 or so miles through Camp Lejeune, it was back to the usual scenery--swamps, marsh areas, a few scattered houses.  And there was always a house or two that caught our attention like this lovely pink one:

     As it got later in the day, the wind kicked up and we were glad to finally head into Dudley's marina in Swansboro, NC.  We had planned to fuel up, but the winds were so strong, they literally blew us into the dock and so we tied down for the night.  In the middle of the night, I was awakened by another loud boom and I thought the fuel dock had exploded.  No signs of fire around or anything else, and then it dawned on me that it was another bomb exercise at Camp Lejeune.  Wonder how the locals put up with the constant booms.  Next morning, we were out of there before another bomb dropped!
     Next stop:  historic Beaufort, NC

Goodbye South Carolina, Hello North Carolina

     We departed North Myrtle Beach on Friday (4/30), once again heading North on the ICW.  Just out of the marina, we entered an area known as "The Rockpile," which is exactly what the name implies.  We heard the usual horror stories and I was a bit unnerved--if you hit bottom here, you ended up with a hole in your hull (not a good thing for a boat) rather than just possible prop damage if you hit on a sandy bottom.  We motored on through without difficulty, but my stress levels have not been happy with the "potential" dangers we keep running into on this trip.  Shallow water continues to be the number one threat, as we were to find out later.
      Once through The Rockpile, it was an enjoyable ride with the usual sights.  Approximately 14 miles into our trip, we crossed into North Carolina, and the route brought us close enough to see the Atlantic Ocean along side of us, as you can see in this photo:

   The ocean is at the top--you can even see the surf.

     We also passed several inlets (in our case, they would have been outlets) where you can leave the ICW and head out to sea, but we aren't planning to do that on this trip.  Here is one inlet we passed:

     Once again, we found ourselves admiring the houses along the waterway, at least until we passed this one:

      My camera does not do justice to the color of this house--it was really purple and the first really upscale eyesore we have seen, at least until we came across this next one:

What were these people thinking?

     Just when we thought we had seen every possible type of housing along the waterways, we came upon our first trailer park:

     Fortunately, there were many more interesting homes to view as we went along.  There are a lot of new housing developments, and what could be more nautical than a lighthouse at the entrance to your development (even if it has no other purpose?):

     Even more new houses line the coast (wonder if they were thinking about hurricanes when they built these right on the Atlantic Ocean?):

    Lastly, to sum up the housing part of today's blog, here is one of my favorites:

     By mid day, we left the scenic and protected canal section of the ICW and headed onto the Cape Fear River (now there's a name that got my attention). This was another point where you could go right out into the ocean.  The wind and waves picked up, as well as the river traffic.  No more little yachts floating on the canals--now we were in with the big guys:

     There were also a lot of barges, car carriers and tugs to dodge around:

Cute little guy, huh?  But it wouldn't take much for him to knock us out of his way and send us to the bottom, so we steered clear of all commercial traffic.

     In spite of all that was going on in the river, we navigated the 12 mile stretch before heading back into protected waters, which also meant heading back into potential shallow spots.  All went well enough as we headed to our next stop at Wrightsville Beach, until we made the turn into Motts Channel near the marina.  Art was going quite slow, but all of a sudden we were going even slower as we scraped the sandy bottom.  Fortunately, we coasted on off the sand bar and were able to continue, but three boats after us were not so lucky and had to be towed off.  This group included some friends of ours who ended up with a bent prop and had to lay over an extra day for repairs.  Luck, and Art's skill, were with us today.

Charleston Disclaimer

     Before I write about what we have been up to lately, I have to revisit my Charleston, SC blog.  My ever vigilant editor-in-chief and fact checker, Connie Jordan, correctly pointed out that the "first" First Baptist Church was not founded in Charleston at all, but rather in Providence, R.I. in 1638.  I mention this because I had been told that the historical tours offered in Charleston were very entertaining, but not always accurate, and I pretty much ignored that fact and accepted everything they said as the gospel truth--silly me.  My facts may be wrong, but everything else I wrote about Charleston is accurate--it is delightful and not to be missed.

This is the "real" first First Baptist Church, still serving the Providence, R.I. community.

North Myrtle Beach, SC

     We docked at the Barefoot Resort and Yacht Club in North Myrtle Beach last Sunday to attend the AGLCA Spring Rendezvous.  Interestingly, the only thing there was the marina, three condominium buildings, a small conference center and a registration office for renting those condominiums (which were mostly vacant).  Seems this poor resort was the victim of a greedy financial officer, and ended up in default--thus our rather spartan accommodations (there wasn't anything else there).  But they still had one claim to fame--the largest swimming pool in all of South Carolina.  Check it out (and also notice all the empty boat slips--that is where we docked while we were here, so this photo must have been taken before they were even open):

     But we weren't there for the facilities (good thing, huh?), but instead, for the AGLCA (one more time, it's America's Great Loop Cruisers Association) meetings.  Much to my dismay, they were scheduled daily from 9 am to 9 pm (who wants to be up and civil by that hour and then have to go all day?).  On the plus side, now that I am done whining, the meetings were very helpful and we got some good tips about the trip ahead.  Lunch and dinner were provided every day (good thing too, since there was nowhere else to eat and no access to a grocery store to cook on the boat).  Surprisingly, the meals were quite good and we always enjoyed the "social hour" before.  Not much else to say about the five days we spent there, but at least you know what I was doing when I wasn't posting.  We did have some fun with our fellow boaters in the marina, as you can see in the photo below.

Notice how I am smiling?  Amazing what a cocktail party will do for your attitude.

Here's our boat safely tied up at the marina.

This was the beautiful sunset our last night there.

       Our next stop will take us into North Carolina (boy, there's a lot of this Carolina stuff to get through) and we will be planning our future stops as we go--at this point we don't have any set schedule, so I will let you know where we end up.

 

Georgetown to North Myrtle Beach

     We woke up in Georgetown to cloudy skies and a promise of rain in the forecast (it didn't take much to convince me--the humidity level here would qualify as rain in California).  We headed out, and sure enough, the drizzle began.  But it was still a fun day with wildlife to see, some quirky bridges and the usual collection of homes along the way.  Today's post will be a photo essay of our day.

We passed so many trees with Osprey nests and an Osprey sitting there keeping watch.  We were about to find out what they were doing.

They were watching mama looking out for her chicks.

I think this is the first "swing" bridge we have come across on this trip.  The bridge tender had a reputation for being a cranky old guy and he didn't disappoint. The bridge opened only on a set schedule and we were told before leaving Georgetown that he would only open it between 10 am and 2 pm on the day we were passing.  We floated around in the middle of the channel with a few other boats for about 15 minutes before he opened the bridge for us to pass.

This poor house was part of a small group of fishing camps built in the water (I didn't have a wide enough lens to capture the very nice house next to him), but this guy's fishing days are over.

This McMansion is typical of the homes we have seen along this trip.  Attention IRS:  there are a lot of very rich people living in the swamps of South Carolina.  We have been absolutely amazed at the size of some of the homes we have passed.

     We are about to cruise into North Myrtle Beach for our meetings, and that will be next.