December 4, 2023 Beaufort SC

Started the day with an amazing sunrise and thoughts of my Mom as she would have been 93 today. Always up for travel and adventure, I know she would enjoy following our travels. We left our very quiet anchorage around 10AM today as we only had a couple of hours' travel to get to Beaufort, SC. It's pronounced 'Bufort' with a long 'u' sound here, as in 'beautiful'. The town of the same name in NC it's pronounced "Bofert" as in 'Beau Bridges'.

We were waitlisted for the marina, so we opted for the mooring field. It was a bit of a fiasco! I hooked the line on the first mooring ball only to find that there was no loop at the end of it and the rope slowly slipped away. Heading for another mooring ball, I was able to hook the line but it was apparently caught on the chain beneath the ball and we couldn't pull it up to get our rope attached. I tried to hold on but the boat was pulling away. I was yelling "I can't hold on." Myles was yelling "Hold on!" I said again "I'm losing the pole." Myles said "Don't lose the pole!"  Though desperate to hang on, the pole was pulled out of my hands. Now I had to retrieve the pole with our second pole before it floated away or sunk. Thankfully it stayed hooked to the mooring ball and I was able to retrieve it. Nearing a third mooring ball i could see its rope with an intact loop at the end. I hooked it and easily got our line through the loop and we were secured.

We took the dinghy into town and walked around for a while, then found a restaurant near the water and had late lunch/early dinner. Beaufort appears to be a thriving, cute, historic town, and much larger than we expected. Back on the boat with a plan to leave early in the morning to head south to Savannah.