Rocking the night away outside of Beaufort, SC

Sometimes, when cruising, you just have one of THOSE nights....that happened last night, Thursday.  We motored down the SC ICW from south of Charleston to just a few miles north of Beaufort, SC.  It was a very windy day, mostly on the nose,  but we were in the ICW instead of the ocean, so it was ok.  It took all day to reach our destination, as we ended up motoring against current of 1.5 to 2 knots all day long.  I didn't know that was possible, what with tide changes every 6 hours.  It just depends on where we are relative to an inlet from the ocean. Anyway, it was dusk as we reached out destination.  I went out in the 20 knot wind and did the anchoring.  Fortunately, the anchor "set" as soon as we dropped it and we felt secure.  With the even higher winds predicted, we carefully chose an anchorage location that would put us on the "leeward" side of land in a relatively narrow creek which is part of the ICW.  In other words, we were protected by trees and land that would break up the predicted south wind before it got to us.  Well.  Shortly after dark, the darn wind shifted unexpectedly to the west, and blew straight down the channel where we were anchored. With wind in excess of 20 knots and gusts to 35 knots, we didn't get much sleep.  The boat rocked.  It rolled.  The various anchor alarms went off (that's good - we like to know what is going on).  Everything was ok, we didn't drag our anchor, and  the boat stayed where we wanted it. As a special bonus, we had wind against current about half the time, putting us sideways to the 2 to 3 ft chop generated by the 25 to 30 kt winds, and the anchor chain dissapearing at strange angles, like under the boat. What a miserable night - Luke was up every hour or so to check out the alarms and how the boat was swinging around.  We were glad for morning.  As soon as we pulled up the anchor and motored around the turn to the now sheltered side of the island, everything calmed down.  But at least, before the wind picked up, we were treated to a nice sunset (the first of many for this season's blog, I'm sure!)

The cold mornings have a wonderful effect on Smokey - she wants to be a lap cat.  I like it!  She is definitely toasty and warm when she lays in my lap, although she makes accomplishing anything difficult.

Beaufort, SC has a town dock that is free during the day so boaters can go sightseeing, eat out, etc.  Boats can tie up there from 6 a.m. to 1 a.m.  But not overnights!  If you stay all night, you will be hit with a $3000 fine! (yelp, that's three thousand!).  We left at 4....

Beaufort itself is a sweet little southern town, established in 1514. It was settled by the Spanish, then the French, and later the British.  The big live oaks drip with Spanish Moss, letting you know you are in the low country.  If fact, it looks like every plant here drips with Spanish Moss.

We visited the historic Parish Church of St. Helena, established in 1712.    http://www.sthelenas1712.org/index.php?page=history   Really interesting history!

 The wall around the building was built of  bricks that were used as ballast for the big sailing vessels coming into the Beaufort harbor.

Within the church walls is the old cemetary.  Beaufort honors her own, with each Confederate soldier's grave appropriately marked.  A Confederate flag and a CSA plaque mark each grave.

In addition to the many local graves, there are 2 British officers buried here, killed during the Revolutionary War.  Their graves are marked, appropriately, with British flags.

Know what else Beaufort has?  Grand old mansions, built from the fortunes made by producing rice, indigo, and cotton.  These stately homes have been used for movies such as "The Big Chill", The Prince of Tides", and "Forest Gump".  They have not been turned into museums; most are still private residences.

And a little botany lesson - Not being from the SC, GA, or FL, I've never seen the fruit of a sago palm until today.  The palm plant itself is beautiful...it's much taller than I am.  I had to hold the camera above my head to get this picture.

But just look at the fruit in the middle!

Turns out that there are two types of Sago palms.  One has edible fruit and the other one is highly poisonous.  This is the poison varity.  I've just never seen the fruit - these orange balls are at least 1 1/2 inches in diameter.  Very impressive!

It's going to be cold tonight, but we are here at the marina dock, hooked up to electricity.  Very nice.  Our look at the weather gives us hope for an outside run from here to at least St. Augustine, starting on Sunday.  I hope it holds up, because we sure are ready for consistently warm weather.