It’s Tuesday morning early and we have been in Beaufort NC for two days now. Being here is yet another milestone of sorts for me as it’s the first place that I/we have visited on the ICW that I have been to once before by boat. Beaufort was the first stop for me in the USA when I helped bring back The Abby from Nassau Bahamas in May.
It’s been fun showing Brenda around town and visiting some of the same places that I went to back in May. When I was stuck here with the rest of the crew of The Abby while we waited for tropical storm Beryl to come by. While I enjoyed Beaufort then, I thought that it would be even better with Brenda. I am happy to report that I was right, it’s even better now.
The weather has been just terrific with warm days and cool nights and it’s also nice to see (mostly) clear water again after the muddy waters of the Chesapeake and tannin stained waters of the canals. While the water is indeed clear, and again salty, I am told that it’s no match for what we will experience in the Bahamas in a few months.
It was a real thrill to see our first bottle nose dolphins when we first arrived. Alas, theirs was a brief visit while we were enjoying cocktails on Sunday evening and I didn’t have time to get my camera. “Flipper, Flipper, come back, I need to take your picture!” I am hopeful that there will soon be more opportunities.
However, all is not lost as the wild ponies made an appearance last afternoon and patiently posed for their photo op while Brenda and I motored the dink back and forth. We were perhaps 100′ from them while they were grazing on the shore and within a stone’s throw of Pandora. OK, perhaps a stone’s throw for The Incredible Hulk, but closer than most will ever be to a wild horse by boat. These guys/gals looked totally non-stressed by our buzzing outboard so close by. They never even looked up.
If one pony picture is good, two is better. 
There was also a large egret hanging out with the horses, perhaps to snatch up any fish that were spooked by them as they moved through the shallows. I am not particularly good at catching shots of flying, or about to fly birds. Yes, it’s hard to see that this is an egret but you will have to trust me on this. 
Beaufort is quite unique as I can’t imagine that there are many places in the world where you can anchor a boat and be as close to four star dining as four legged creatures of the wild horse sort. And, just to prove that I can take photos of things that fly, here’s a shot of a small butterfly that I got when Brenda and I went for a walk yesterday. I must have looked like a 10 year old with a net chasing this bug around someone’s front garden with my camera. “Hold still you *&% bug, Brenda says that I have to take a photo of you.” It was the only photo I was able to get. Good thing that it turned out. By the look of the photo, you’d never know that the garden was totally overgrown and the house looked like it was going to fall down almost any minute. 
Our last stop before coming here to Beaufort was Oriental NC where we enjoyed a nice evening anchored in the little harbor. On the chart you’d never know that there was room behind the breakwater for even one boat, much less the dozen or so that crammed in for the evening. We went for a walk but I have to say that the architecture wasn’t much to write home about or take photos of. However, it’s a very nice place to visit. They did have some pretty neat shrimp boats though. 
Speaking of shrimp boats, I am told that parts of the movie Forest Gump, the fishing scenes in particular, were filmed here in Beaufort.
As we made our way from Oriental to Beaufort on Sunday, we went through yet another long canal (against the current, some points as strong as 2.5kts, I might add). This pretty motor sailor passed us looking very sharp.
Speaking of boats, how about this “pirate ship”? I expect that I’d have to drink lots of rum to be willing to be seen in public aboard this. That, and an eye patch over one eye, or over both eyes “where’s Bobby?” to hide my identity. 
Yesterday we had lunch with two nice couples. One,the local SSCA cruising station hosts, Normandy and Michael, for Beaufort. They recently moved here from the West Coast and are getting ready to cruise again. It was fun to hear about their cruising in Mexico and Baha and yes, they did get here through the Panama Canal. The other couple, who we had met at the Annapolis Gam, Melinda and Harry Schell of Seaschell have lived aboard for over ten years. We had Melinda and Harry over for sundowners last evening and enjoyed learning more about what to expect next on our trip south. It’s interesting how often we run into people that we know on this trip. You’d expect to be a bit starved for company going from harbor to harbor, but we keep running into SSCA folks and it’s more like a movable social event than a solo cruise south aboard Pandora.
We have been debating what’s best for the leg to Charleston, inside down the ICW or a jump and overnight run outside. Melinda said something that we have also heard from others, suggesting that everyone should run down inside at least once. That might be a good idea as there are some fun places to visit between here in Charleston that we would miss if we did an offshore run.
Today we will be “buddy boating” with Seashell, I think to Cape Lookout and a walk on the ocean beach. That should be fun. Laundry first, perhaps.
What, no sunrise or sunset photos to close the post? Sorry, not today as I am done with this post and the sun hasn’t come up yet. Well, it’s almost up but not quite. I just looked out and it does look like it’s going to be a fine day. Still no photo? You’ll just have to trust me on that.