Happy New Year from Beaufort

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Ok, I know it is the 4th of January, but good things take time. We are now in Beaufort, North Carolina. That is pronounced “bow-fort” (as in tying a bow) as opposed to Beaufort, SC pronounced Bu-fort (the U is a long U). One should not get these confused. Makes the locals in both places unhappy.

New Years

We arrived in Beaufort on Dec 30th after a 5 hour trip. Got settled at the marina and did a quick walk around town. Very cute little town founded in 1709 with lots of that charm still available.

Ok, maybe not the quaintness of the town, but one must add new infrastructure. The house in the background is from the 17 or 1800’s.

We did a more thorough walk around on New Years Eve and managed to find a nice place to eat breakfast outside. Jim was in heaven as Jim’s favorite meal out is breakfast. New Years Eve, was on the boat. Just us and Shrimp and Grits. The recipe turned out to be amazingly good!

The weather cooperated, at least for awhile before the rain started. So, we managed to get the farolitos out for a bit. Yeah!

Beaufort History

They have lots of maps for walking tours in Beaufort, so we availed ourselves and visited the Old Burying Ground, started the same time as the town. They have an interesting map of the cemetery with stories about various inhabitants. We thought this one of the girl in a barrel of rum was particularly interesting.

This is the grave of a girl who in the 1700’s came as an infant with her parents from England. She always wanted to see the land of her birth and so her father took her to London, promising he would return safely with his daughter. She is said to have enjoyed her visit, but died on the return voyage. Rather than bury her at sea and break his promise to his wife, he purchased a barrel of rum from the captain and placed his daughter in it for burial back in Beaufort.

Another of my favorites was story of Sarah Gibbs who died in 1792. Her husband Jacob Shepard was a seaman whose ship went to sea but never returned. Presumed dead, Sarah later married Nathanial Gibbs and had a child with him. Several years later, Jacob unexpectedly returned. The two men agreed that Sarah would remain with Nathanial as long as he lived, but upon her death would spend eternity with Jacob. Therefore, the two are buried next to each other in the cemetery.

Wildlife and the Marina

Just 30 short miles as the crow files from New Bern and in closer proximity to the ocean makes a big difference in wildlife. We are now seeing dolphins daily in the sound. There are also plenty of pelicans and cormorants.

A “gulp” of Double-crested Cormorants. We have seen them several times in large “gulps”. Sometimes the pelicans also join them. They seem to be fishing, so their must be tasty fish below.

The dock master told us there are sometimes otters on the docks in the morning, fishing in the bait tanks, but so far we’ve not seen them.

We hear night herons each…. night. One time we saw him on our swim platform and this time on our bow pulpit railing. Must be good places to fish from.

Views From our Slip

Each marina is a bit different and we’ve been lucky enough to be on a T-heads or flat faces where we have good views of the goings on. There are pluses and minuses and more movement from waves, but more to see.

A bit of a funny T-head. This dock has all fishing boats on lifts to protect them from constantly sitting in the water. Makes for an interesting view. At this marina, there are 3 foot tides. The marina is on floating docks so the whole dock structure, sans these boats on the lifts, rises and falls with the tide. Makes it so much easier for us to get in and out of the boat with a floating dock. Relative to our boat, it does not move.

This area is called the Crystal Coast (every place must have an intriguing name I guess….) Apparently quite touristy in the warm months and pre-Covid.

Looking out the port side of our boat. The weather was quite warm, in the 60’s for a few days and the tiki bar was in service.

We are doing well and the kittens are being pretty happy. We continue to work on projects and launched the dinghy today. Yeah! Post projects. Another post with today’s dinghy work and adventures to follow.

Through our travels this year, we’ve seen various signs of “be kind” and such. Something we all should heed.

Stay safe and health and I wish you a happy, joyous and prosperous new year

Comments

Happy New Year from Beaufort — 3 Comments

  1. Happy new year and thanks for the history lesson on Beaufort. Glad you’re enjoying the adventure. Keep on posting!

  2. I love that saying. Have seen it or heard it before somewhere – probably on NPR. I think I will make a poster for my front door

  3. There is lots of interesting history, so very different than that we learned in school, out here in the East Coast hinter lands.