Beaufort to Vernons River, GA

Wednesday, Nov 2

We had a nice day of walking around town.  Beaufort is one of my favorite places to visit. The houses are beautiful and the side streets are quiet so we can act like tourists and stand in the middle of the road to take pictures and there is no traffice to run us over.  In the afternoon our friends on POLAR PACER and MUTUAL FUN pulled into the harbor.  We had a potluck with Tom and Chris.  I brought freshly baked molasses oatmeal bread and a spinach artichoke pasta salad, Chris made pizza and flounder.  This was not a menu you would put together on purpose, but it was delicious.  After dinner Jeannie and Randy came over and we played rummy cubes then watched an episode of Top Gear on the lap top.  It was a fun evening.

Thursday, Nov 3

Today we got our exercise, we spent another day walking around with Tom, Chris, Randy, and Jeannie. We had been amused by the "low clearance" signs on the live oaks until we saw a tractor trailer hit a low hanging branch that was not marked.  The trailer was a little the worse for wear, but the tree branch did not move an inch, not even the leaves.

  In the afternoon we walked out to the National Cemetery which was started during the Civil War.  It was sad to see all of the tombstones, but very uplifting to see the care and respect with which the cemetary is kept. The groundskeepers were very helpful about answering questions or pointing out monuments.  In the late afternoon it started raining so we spent the rest of the time in the boat reading books.

Friday, Nov 4

We left Beaufort late in the day for us, 9:20, to catch the tide for at least part of the day.  We passed Paris Island and Hilton Head (very different life styles). It was kind of a strange sailing/motoring day. Sometimes we would be traveling at 8.0 knots, then we would turn into another river or sound and be traveling at 2.8 knots. 

When we pulled into Bull Creek to anchor Tom had already anchored and came out in his dinghy to give us anchoring instructions. When we approached where we were going to anchor Randy was out in his dinghy with a hand held depthsounder making sure "our" spot would be appropriate.  It is nice to have personalized harbor master service!  In the evening we had a potluck with 6 other people on MUTUAL FUN.

Saturday, Nov 5

BRRRRRR.  It is very cold. The temperature was in the 30s last night.  When we woke up it was 45 degrees inside the boat in Georgia. Global warming is not all it is cracked up to be.  We left at sunrise through skeins of sea smoke.  Beautiful, but cold. 

It stayed cold all day.  We were going to anchor for the night at Isle of Hope (aren't the names great down here?), but it was very crowded so we headed 7 miles south to Vernon River.  MUTUAL FUN made the same decision.  They came over for drinks and snacks and brought charts so we could talk about places to go in the Bahamas.  It was fun to have people over to our boat for a change.  The general rule on RONDO is two guests at a time, otherwise the water comes in the cockpit drains.   I hope the weather warms up soon!