A Little History

Beaufort, S.C. pronounced Bewfort; Beaufort, N. C. pronounced Boefort. Beaufort was the number one contributor of men and money to the American Revolutionary War; not New York, Virginia or Massachusetts as I always thought. The articles of Separation were drawn up right here on Craven St. The war came to Beaufort when the union needed to close the harbor during the union blockade. On a hot July day, 130 ships of the North sailed into the harbor. Sixty ships were equipped with the latest in war weapons, steam power. With this new invention the ships could maneuver without wind or sail. The ships formed a circle and one after another fired on the city. This pounding lasted for hours. Meanwhile, the rich plantation owners were taking whatever possessions they could carry and leaving the city. This is what history books called "The Great Skidaddle." The town was left to the slaves and one white town drunk. The party was on. The northern soldiers entered the city four days later and ended the party. They had planned on burning the town, without the owners to see it, they changed their minds. The John Mark Verdier house became headquarters for the union during the war. For several years Beaufort was a union town. Many of the homes and churches were made into hospitals. Ships came into port day and night with wounded and dead soldiers from both sides. They used cemetery head stones as operating tables. The First National Cemetery is in Beaufort. After the war, few of the rich plantation owners returned to town. Most of the homes were sold to carpetbaggers for the tax lien. Over 21 movies were filmed here. "The Big Chill", The Prince of Tides", "The Great Santini", "The Water Runs Deep", and "G I Jane." We saw the house Sally Field lived in while filming "Forest Gump." Live oak trees around the city are said to be 400 years old. They are magnificent in their sizes and shapes. The waterfront park has swings for two . They look like the old fashion ones that are on a front porch or verandah. It is a beautiful city.

Beaufort, S.C.

• Beaufort is one of the oldest cities in S. C. A small town where everybody says "Hello". The ambiance is more serene.
• The first thing we did was take a fascinating walking tour back in history with John Sharp. He was a hollywood actor who was shipwrecked in Beaufort. He was rescued by the Coast Guard and brought ashore by helicopter. He says he fell under the spell of Beaufort's natural beauty, her people and her history. The tour usually takes about 2 hours, the day we went it took 3 hours.

Southern Hospitality

• I woke up one morning and I kept seeing spots before my eyes. Thinking it was the start of a migraine, I took one of my pills. I walk around all day a little out of it but I can function. I still see the spots, but there's no pain. The next day I woke up again with the spots in front of my eyes. Rather than take a chance of getting a real painful headache, I take another pill. The next day I'm no better.
• The only way I can describe the spots is to tell you to think of a camp fire. When you put a newspaper into the fire pieces of the paper fly up, they look like black flakes that just flow.
• After a week of this, starting to think I have a brain tumor or something, we decided it's time to seek professional help.
• We get a car from the marina, we can have it for one hour. Its around 1 o'clock. Mike drives me to the walk-in clinic. They tell us it will be a two to three hour wait. Mike gives me money for a taxi home and I get comfortable while I wait.
• Two and a half hours later, I go in to see the doctor. Well its Doogie Houser. This man can't be over 21. He's handsome and has just enough of a southern drawl to make me melt. He must have spent a good hour just talking to me and asking me questions. He called a collegue of his and made an appointment for me to go right over to his office. I explain that I do not have a car, that I have to call a cab. He offers to drive me to the other doctor. I decided to call Mike, I'm a little nervous. Mike gets the car, it's 5:30 and he must have it back by 6, the office girl wants to go home and can not as long as we have the car.
• Once again Mike lets me off at the second office with money to call a cab. This doctor is just as nice and young. Maybe I'm just that old. My mother once told me when the police, priests and doctors look young, you're over the hill. No, he is very young, he just opened his practice.
• After examining me and taking several x-rays, he tells me I have Posterior Vitreous Detachment. PVD is a common condition which occurs in about 75 percent of people over the age of 65. The jelly-like substance inside the eye changes. To make a long story short, the central part of the vitreous becomes more liquid and the outer part peels away from the retina. This causes the floaters or flashing lights. I have to learn to live with it. I can handle that.
• The only people in the office now are the doctor, his assistant and me. It's near 7 oclock and I'm about to call for the cab. My eyes are dilated and very light senitive. The doctor says, "Don't be silly, I'll drive you home." Can you imagine that. I have never had a doctor keep his office open for me before, much less drive me home. That's what I call southern hospitality.

Age Matters

• Mike was thrilled not to have to pay to see this fort. Months ago he purchased the National Parks and Federal Recreational Lands Service pass. It's one of the few times he was happy to admit he's a senior citizen.
• Castillo De San Marcos National Monument. This fort is the oldest and largest stone fort in the U.S. Built by the Spanish during 1672-1695 with blocks of coquina (shellstone).
• When the British attacked St. Augustine in the summer of 1740, they expected a quick victory. After thirty-eight days of siege, the frustrated English forces left and returned to Georgia. The fort is over 300 years old and most of the damage to it has resulted not from the past battles but from the thousands of people who visit it each year.
• The San Sebastian Winery was a good place to head at lunch time. The tour took us from one extreme dry wine to sweet or desert wines. After tasting 11 wines we went to the basement on the Roof or the Cellar Upstairs. Being a wine novice this was a delightful experience. We relaxed to local jazz music and a tremendous view overlooking the San Sebastian River. We had one of the wines we tasted and some cheese. We went back to town on the train.
• Went to one of those Ripley's Believe It or Not Museums. There was a replica of Michael Angelo's "David". It was as 18 foot tall hand-carved marble statue weighing 20,000 pounds. I can understand why this was a controversial piece. I wasn't impressed, girls, if you know what I mean?
• A little shopping, at a store called Among the Flowers, I got a beautiful Vera Bradley pocketbook.
• Time for dinner at Harry's. All New Orleans style seafood. We were tired and ready for bed so we headed home. This time that little stretch of the leg became the walk of the long stretch of the leg. We had no trouble sleeping.

St Augustine

• So much history and so much to do. St Augustine is great. The city marina was full for the weekend. We had to go across the Indian River to the Anchorage Motel and Marina. It was probably a good thing. The city marina is right in the heart of town. Where we stayed you had to walk across the bridge every time you wanted to do something. As John Wayne would say "a good stretch of the leg." I'm glad we were there on a weekend, there was construction going on at the bridge and the noise would have been deafening.
• On Friday night we met Rita and Robert W. for cocktails on their boat. We went for a walk around town and to dinner at an outdoor cafe, Crab Grabbers. The music and atmosphere really made the night.
• Saturday morning we went across the bridge and took Ripley's sightseeing train. The ticket is good for 3 consecutive days and you can get off and reboard at any of the stops. The tour takes about 2 hours and shows you everything you want to see. We stayed on the train until the end and then went on our own.
• St. Augustine's age of 442 years may not seem significant, but the city is indeed very old. Despite seemingly endless colonial calamities, including fires, floods, destructive storms and wars and even starvation in its first two hundred years of life, St. Augustine has survived and now flourishes in this new century.
• Our 1st stop was at the Cathedral Basilica of St. Augustine. It was founded on the feast day of St. Augustine in 1565 by Don Pedro Menendez de Aviles. Father Thomas Hassett a priest from Ireland, with assistance from Spain, built the church of coquina stone in 1793. It was completed in 1797 by another Irish priest, Father Michael O'Rielly. There's a shrine to St. Patrick, patron saint to thousands of Irish Priests who served in the New World for over 400 years.
• This is the oldest continuously active Catholic faith community in the continental United States. The great fire of 1887 seriously damaged the building but left its wall intact. It was rebuilt the same year. Actually it was rebuilt three times. The stained glass windows, the sanctuary murals, the murals above the vestibule are all works of art. You don't have to be Catholic to be impressed with this cathedral.
• We went to lunch at an Irish Pub. They don't make corned-beef sandwiches like the N.Y. Jewish delis. We think there was meat on it. The black and tan was good and cold.
• First tour was Flagler College. Henry Flagler was a self-made millionaire who, with John D. Rockefeller, founded the Standard Oil Company. Flagler decided to develop St. Augustine into a winter resort for the rich and famous. He built the Ponce de Leon Hotel, this grand gilded age structure still stands today and functions as Flagler College. Many presidents stayed at the hotel. It was $6.00 to $60.00 to stay there, in today's money it would cost $20,000 a week. This included everything except your bar bill. Flagler didn't think the place should be perfect. He believed that only God could make perfection. There's a tile in black that should be white in the entrance, if you know about it you can find it. As we walked through the school we saw the largest collection in the world of Tiffany Windows. The students actually eat in the dining room set up as it was in 1887. The murals and painting of the parlor room, the hand-carved columns of the rotunda all take your breath away. A national landmark, Flagler College has spent more than $23 million restoring the hotel. It's a private, liberal arts college with more than 2,000 students and is one of "America's Best Colleges."

Marinas in Fla.

• As we headed up the coast of Florida we stayed one night in lots of marinas. We would much rather stay on the hook; it's cheap and in many of these small towns there's really nothing to do. New Smyrna Beach, we stayed here because it was very windy. Daytona Beach, again because the weather was bad.
• One night we stayed at Palm Coast. Mike was washing some of the salt off the boat. He let the hose drip into the water. All of a sudden he jumped and let out a yell. He scared himself. Out of the corner of his eye he thought he saw a big fish jump out of the water, maybe a shark. It was big alright. It was a manatee. Apparently, it stays around the dock for fresh water. When Mike let the hose drip, he came right over for a drink. I had the camera handy and got a picture of him. Ugly. It was about 800 pounds and smiled at Mike.

Kennedy Space Center

• We stayed on the anchor at a place called Dragon Point. The next day we headed to the friendly Titusville Municipal Marina which is under construction, no sleeping late here. We rented a car and went to the Kennedy Space Center. The center is on Merritt Island Wildlife Refuge, 140,000 acres.
• We enjoyed listening to inspiring stories of the NASA's journey. If I was a little girl I would want to be an astronaut. We roamed through trails of Mercury, Gemini and Apollo missions and saw the actual rockets. I was amazed that we were allowed to get so close to the launch pads. The center had an air conditioned bus that took you from place to place, you could stay at any sight as long as you wanted.
• In the Imax theaters they had 3-D glasses and you were transformed from movie watcher to moonwalker. Tom Hanks produced and narrated the movie. I love it when the rocket takes off, it's like a great roller coaster ride. When sparks fly through the air you duck or put up your hands to prevent getting hit by rock of debris.
• The next film was narrated by Tom Cruise. Again you had your glasses. This one was all about weightlessness. Watching and getting the feeling you were just floating around in the space station, it was awesome.
• We went on a shuttle launch. You are given a locker to put any loose items in; your glasses, change and jewelry. If you have had any recent surgery or injury you cannot participate. You are strapped into a seat and get the full sights, sounds and feeling of a vertical launch. The extreme shaking, motion and vibrations can effect you. One lady felt motion sick and as my kids would say....what big chunks she blew. It was a thrilling experience. You have to take the time and stop here one day yourself.
• The international space station, sending people to the moon maybe someday I will get there. We were lucky enough to see an actual launch, a communication satellite.

Vero Beach

• Since I was a little girl I can remember Indian River Oranges. Now I know where Indian River is and where those oranges came from. Vero Beach is a great stopover when heading north. It's an affluent resort town.
• We stayed at the municipal marina. The marina is in a park like setting and you can walk to the ocean front with dozens of restaurants. Every two hours a bus was available to drive you to town. The bus was free, but donations were accepted. We took the bus, we have found that the best way to see an area is to take local transportation. We needed some supplies from West Marine. At night we had a mile or so hike to Mulligans Restaurant and enjoyed our 1st Maine lobster. I didn't share, I ate the whole thing. The walk home was much needed.
• The next day there was a Walk for Life, Birthright. We walked the 5 miles and now have another tee-shirt.

Surprise

We called Ruth and Dennis to let them know we were back in the states. To our surprise, they drove 3 hours from Fort Myers to Hutchinson Island to spend the afternoon with us. We had so much to talk about. They have their boat up for sale so we can rule out spending time in the Bahamas with them. They are keeping Tango, Mike's boating buddy.

Hutchinson Island

• Our first greeting after entering the St. Lucie River was a parade of dolphins. They loved our wake. They leaped and danced for us; made us squeal with delight.
• Just one mile from the St. Lucie Inlet, we docked at the Hutchinson Island Marriott Beach Resort. Coffee and paper in the morning, beautiful pool and laundry was free. In the Bahamas I paid $6.00 every time I did a load of wash.
• The fist night at the marina they had an end of winter party. We had hamburgers, hot dogs and all the trimmings. As Mike always said, the best beer is a cold free one and there was plenty of everything.
• We gave Pete and Peg G. a call with the hope we could get together. Early the next morning they were there. They were very gracious in offering us their car to use. Instead we sat back and let them drive us around. First stop was to check in with customs. You have a 24-hour number to call as soon as you arrive back in the states. The officer then gives you an arrival number and you are instructed to present yourself and your crew for a face to face inspection. We had to go to Fort Pierce Airport, Pete drove us and on the way gave us a tour of Jensen Beach and Hutchinson Island. We expected a big hassle with customs, we were in and out in 10 minutes.
• We headed to a restaurant for lunch, (favorite pastime) at this point we called Marianne and Joe G. to meet us. We sat at the bar, waiting for Marianne and Joe, it was hot so the drinks went down easy. I impressed Peg, I kept up with everyone. We had a nice lunch and went back to Joe and Marianne's condo. What a beautiful home they have, the location is ideal.
• Time to leave and we went to Pete and Peg's. I could not get over the front doors to their condo, they are massive. I love the open and airy Florida living. I could not stop looking out from their balcony, the ocean is just never ending. No wonder Peg loves it so much.
• We went to the public grocery store and had a ball getting all the stuff we could not get in the Bahamas. Important stuff, like large stuffed garlic olives and mallomars.

Grand Bahama Island

• We were at Old Bahama Bay Marina the very 1st night we came to the Bahamas. Here it is our last night and we are back. It's kindof a "gotcha." There's no other place to stay in this area, it's the only real shelter. We were lucky to get a slip. We could hear other boats calling on the radio looking for a safe haven for the night and being turned away. I called several days before and was put on a waiting list, it all depends on how many boats can get out.
• We had a very nice dinner with 2 other couples. The plan was to leave early in the morning so we already paid. Once you leave, you have trouble coming back, they can't tell you if there is a slip available until late in the day. When we woke up another storm was raging. Should we go or not. Since we paid last night, they did not have a slip for us. It would depend on how many other boats left. The rain stopped. One of the other couples left. Their boat was a good 10 feet bigger than ours. We waited to hear from them. They called us on the VHF radio and said it wasn't too bad. Do they mean it or does misery enjoy company? We left with TK III, safety in numbers. On the radar we were picking up rain showers, but they were always ahead of us. The first six miles was a little rough, than it calmed down, the ride to St. Lucie was a breeze. We said goodbye to Ron and Sue, "See you next fall."

Time to head back to the States

• We have been living in our second home for 11 months now. We explored islands above and below the sea. It has been an adventure so different from the hustle and bustle of our normal life. Now it's time to head back to reality, start heading home. More than 75% of our trip is done.
• As I think back, we did not have a boring day, we were busy all the time. That's why I did not write in my blog.
• As usual we had to wait for the right weather conditions before we could start our journey back. We were ready a full week before we could start to head for the West End. It was a little windy when we decided to leave, not bad. The ocean was rough so we decided not to go through the Whale Cay Passage, which takes you out into the ocean. We would go through "Don't Rock" rock and Sand Bank Cay. The problem here is it gets very low. We went through at high tide and had never hit less than 6 or 7 feet. We had a smooth ride to Great Sale where we anchored early in the afternoon. We got off the boat and went to shore to explore, again getting many shells to make frames and stuff with the kids. The cay is just a stop area. It is uninhabited and stretches for 5 miles north and south. This cay was once home to a US missile tracking station, the ruins can still be found. We had cocktails aboard TK III and to bed early.
• There were around 7 boats anchored. At 7:30 the 1st boat left heading to West End. All of a sudden a squall came up, there is shattering thunder and shocks of lighting with winds whipping at 40 mph and the rain was like someone spraying a hose full force on us, the sky is black. The waves had the boat rocking up and down. Our anchor started to drag . We were getting too close to TK III. Mike started the boat and I went up top to pull up the anchor. When we put an anchor out Mike puts a snubber line out. You put this line on to take some of the strain off the winch. As I untied the snubber line, I held it in my hands, and started to pull up the anchor line. Well, I screwed up, the middle of the line got caught in the anchor chain and started to suck the snubber line into the well. The whole thing jammed. It froze, I could do nothing. Meanwhile, we are getting closer to the TK III, maybe 25 feet. We were going over his anchor line, if we hit it both our boats would be up on the coral and rocks. What a mess. If we go on shore we can kiss the boat goodbye. The water is pouring off me, I look like a drowned rat. I had to go into the cabin to reset the knife switch. Duh, I forgot how to do it. We only had a problem like this once before about a year ago. I go in to take the wheel while Mike tries to get the anchor up. He keeps telling me not to run over our anchor chain, I keep putting it in neutral, I also have to make sure I do not back over the other boat. My heart is pumping I can't tell what is sweat and what is rain. Mike starts pulling the line in by hand, a wave hits and he has to let go. He starts pulling it in again. Mike is giving me some signals. It's raining so hard I can not see him on the front of the boat. TK III pulls up his anchor, all he wants to do is get away from us. Can't say I blame him. Even though the storm is still raging, Mike gets the anchor chain up and tells me to just go go go. Get out of harm's way. While I was driving, Mike fixed the winch. We are heading for West End. Anything to get away from the rocks. The storm leaves just a quickly as it came.

Auction

• A large crowd of people gathered in the pavilion at the Abaco Beach Resort for the annual Abaco Pathfinders fund raising auction. The goal of this auction is to provide academic and vocational scholarships to as many deserving young Abaconians as possible.
• It all starts with cocktails and hors d'oeuvres and then a roast beef buffet dinner. As we always say at SHYC - fill their bellies with cocktails and they will buy more.
• There were 164 items in silent auctions ranging from grocery store gift certificates to dinners and fishing trips. Mike really wanted the fishing trip, he kept bidding up but when he walked away they closed the bid and he lost.
• The regular auction raised $140,000. Some of the items were airline and ferry tickets, handcrafted pieces and artwork, one week stays at places like Aspen, Colorado, Paris and Canyon Ranch. The auction also included a 33 foot Pearson sail boat and a 22 foot Rosborough Sea Skiff. It was something else.