Saturday, June 16
We continued to move north today. Dave was making an online order this morning that was taking longer than normal to clarify. So we didn’t leave our anchorage until about 12:30. As we passed Hilton Head, SC, we talked to our great niece and nephew, Claire and Garrett Crawford on Facetime. It was fun to show them around the boat and the activity on the ICW. They were able to watch our mast as it went under a bridge. It cleared the bridge by about 10 feet, but when you are looking straight up at it, it looks like 10 inches. When we showed them our dinghy, Garrett remembered Dave telling him last winter “you should only step UP into your dinghy”. In other words, if your boat is still floating, stay with the boat.
We had a much calmer day: no shallow areas and no crazy tourists. We made it to Beaufort, SC by about 5:30. About 3:00, we decided to get a mooring ball at the downtown city marina. Their mooring balls are $20/night and slips are $2:00/ft plus electricity, so about $100. On the mooring ball, you still get to use all the marina facilities. Plus there will be a lot of activity on the water over the weekend since it is Father’s Day.
The office closed at 6:00, so as soon as we were tied up to the mooring ball, we dropped the dinghy in the water and headed to the marina. We returned to the boat, cleaned up a little, and went out for dinner. We went to the Old Bull Tavern. They had an “interesting” menu, but some of their tastes didn’t match what we thought they should be. The Tiramisu was the best part of the meal.
When Dave remade the chaps for the dinghy, he didn’t make a hole at the bow to mount our lights. So I had to hold our bow red/green light on the trip back to the boat. The stern white light had a mount that Dave made from a fishing rod holder and PVC pipe.
Sunday, June 17
Happy Father’s Day to Dave and all the fathers we know. We had a great phone conversation with our son last night. Always miss that guy.
On Friday, as we thought about ending up in Beaufort, I checked on the location of the Catholic Church. It wasn’t within walking distance. I decided to contact the church to see if someone would be able to pick me up for mass. I e-mailed the parish manager explaining my situation. She gave me the phone name and phone number of someone right away. I didn’t call him until last night, since I wasn’t sure where we would end up or where to meet him.
Brian was the head of maintenance at the church. He also picked up a 95 year old lady. I guess they used to have a bus for several people, but now he just does this as needed. I was really glad I thought of this in advance and it all worked out.
While I was at church, Dave was getting fuel in our jerry cans at the marina. He realized he had left his credit card at the restaurant last night. Pretty rare for that to happen to him.
We decided to go out for brunch, so we went by the restaurant. They were closed today AND Monday. We were planning to leave on Monday. So Dave left a phone message, hoping someone would check it for some reason.
The only place within walking distance that served breakfast had a huge waiting line. So we stopped at the next place we came to, Q on Bay, which stood for BBQ on Bay avenue. We were really hot by now, so just had a salad and chicken wings. Not really what we had in mind.
Back at the marina, we used their courtesy car to get a few groceries and a few parts. Dave has been working on the outboard motor for the dinghy and it still needs tweaking. I thought about using the car for church after we arrived. But they have a one hour limit. And it’s on a first come first served basis. So I didn’t want to rely on that.
After unloading groceries, we rounded up 2 loads of laundry and I returned to the marina to use their laundry mat, $1.75/machine. Not your typical Father’s Day.
Once back at the boat, Dave worked on the Mercury 15hp dinghy motor. He thinks he finally got it running smoothly. He learned a lot researching what to do online. Pretty handy guy.
It was too hot to cook on the boat, so I used my fresh produce to make salsa, which turned out pretty good. We had that with chips and leftover chicken wings. But the Father’s Day topper was peach pie that we bought at the grocery store. That made Dave’s day.