Beaufort, SC

We arrived here in Beaufort on Tuesday afternoon after a quiet night at anchor on the ICW between here and Charleston. The anchorage would have been perfect accept for the invasion of bugs. First we had no-see-ums then we had the biggest mosquitoes I've ever seen. We didn't last long in the cockpit then retreated to inside.

The plan was to spend two days here in Beaufort but the weather decided not to cooperate for us to go off shore. We enjoyed yesterday and the day before walking around town being tourists. Larry and I visited two museums and became educated on Beauforts history. Many of the homes and buildings here are made of Tabby. Tabby is a type of concrete but not as lasting as concrete. It's made of oyster shells, sand (fresh water sand is best), fresh water, and lime (made from burned oyster shells). It takes 48 hours for tabby to cure so one course is poured at a time. A structure takes considerable time to complete. When it is complete stucco is put on the outside to protect it from eroding. This area was Summer homes for the wealthy plantation owners. They lived here for three months to escape the mosquitoes and heat, then would return to the plantation for the Winter. Oh the life of the rich and famous!

We stayed another day, as I said the weather decided not to cooperate. Last night a cold front blew through and brought high winds and rain plus lightening and thunder and a tornado watch. A tornado did occur North of here and injured some people and left a few fatalities. We feel lucky that we only lost sleep because of the weather. The winds were supposed to die down this afternoon but they are still strong. Our plan is to go off shore and outside Georgia tomorrow morning if the weather improves like the weatherman predicts. The outside run will take us about 28 hours and we come in the inlet at St. Augustine, FL. We will stay in St. Augustine for a few days to rest up from the lack of sleep before we continue our trip.

I almost forgot to tell you about the photo. Remember a few posts back I talked about collecting shells on the beach with our daughter Patience? This is some of the jewelry I've created with them and some fresh water pearls and silver wire. What fun!