Beaufort (BOW-fert not BYOO-fert)

There is a difference, you know.  Next morning, we motored to get back in the ICW for the route south to Beaufort, North Carolina.  We were there before sundown, which I love.  Gary and I had been to Beaufort before, years ago.  We actually saw the sister ship to the boat he and his family had sailed on for their two years abroad in the 70s.

We checked in and got wooden nickels for free beer or, in my case, sweet tea, and a 10-percent discount card for the dock restaurant, so that's where we decided to go.  We sat on the top deck, looking out over the marina and had just ordered our food when in walk Steve and Marianne, whom we had seen in Belhaven and on the ICW.  I asked them to join us and we had a very nice meal together.  A great couple and I found I had a very special trait in common with Marianne--we both love to eat and are eating our way South, much to our joint enjoyment.  A good time.

The next day, we walked around town a bit and at a bookstore in which we picked up a few things, I noticed a concert poster for David Russell, a great musician whom I had hosted before.  I made sure to tell the owner that the concert would be well worth going to; I wished we were staying long enough, but we were leaving the day before he came to town.

The nice thing about the marina we were at is that, besides having gorgeous boats coming in and out all the time, they provide loaner cars to boaters to drive a bit inland to reprovision their stores.  Elliott and I did that the next day; we got the key from the dock master, who told me to "Drive it like you stole it!," so we thought we may be getting a hotrod.  We came around a corner and found a boat of a car waiting for us.  A Buick Roadmaster Estate Wagon!  This thing is HUGE!!!  And very old.  We found a cassette tape of Fleetwood Mac in the player, and in the glove box, we found Neil Diamond, Whitney Houston, and some mixed tapes.  None of them worked, unfortunately, or we would have been wailing along with the music. 

We drove out to the local Piggly Wiggly, filled up our cart, and, on the way back to town, I did drive it like I stole it, giving the V8 a nice workout, just for fun. 

That afternoon, Elliott and I visited a few museums on foot and stopped for lunch at the Stillwater, which was recommended by a friend.  Thanks, Dave!!!  We sat under cover since the weather had been a little spitty, but we enjoyed a great meal there; he got the fish tacos and black beans and rice and I had a tasty salad with goat cheese, roasted beets, and a fig viniagrette.  Delicious.  Topped off with a Pusser's Painkiller, it was a sweet meal.

Afterwards, me only one sheet to the wind, and Elliott, who was tired of walking, parted ways, as I walked around the more residential areas of town and then back to the marina.

Elliott connected with a young family on a social media page (Paisley's Pirates, who are spending four years on the water) and when we went for dinner that evening, we found the lot of them in the bar downstairs at the dock restaurant.  Very sweet couple who are brand new to sailing, but they started out in Wisconsin and sailed through the Great Lakes and down the ICW to Beaufort so far.  They're learning on the run and they seem to be doing well.  They have three young children and we hope to be meeting up with them again further South.

Beaufort was a great stop and I wish we could have stayed longer.  The next morning, we didn't leave until later (again) because of the tides we expected to encounter when entering Charleston, so we had the aforementioned young man and his sweet daughter on board for a quick visit.  Then we checked out, said goodbye to our other neighbor boat, Victorious, and headed outside into the ocean.  Bloody hell!  Glad I was drugged!