Beaufort, SC . .. . Why Leave?

SHIP'S LOG:

Current Location: Still tied up to the dock at BYSC in Beaufort, SC

It really has been a beautiful stay here in Beaufort. I still think it is the best spot on the ICW and I am loathed to leave it but leave it I must. Yes, I suppose that I could stay but as I've mentioned before, "Good harbors rot ships and men." It is still about 550 miles to miles marker "O" so it will be awhile getting "out of the ditch." If all goes to form, I'll be out of South Carolina by week's end and into North Carolina with its dearth of Cell phone coverage and Internet access. I have been shamelessly feeding of the WIFI at BYSC and probably saving minutes and money as a result. Getting back on the phone card means typing like a maniac, trying to compose and type at the same time. It certainly explains the rather strange prose formations, along with the grammar flaws and punctuation mistakes. It also adds to the charm of the blog, I guess.

Hopefully I will be way by 9am so that I can catch the first opening of the Lady's Island Bridge. This will make it possible for the wind and the tide to get me to Church Creek at a reasonable hour. If things don't quite work out , I'll stop in the South Edisto River where I anchored on the way down. The weather for the week looks fair. There is a possibility of rain on Tuesday and again later in the week . . . if one trusts NOAA's "guesses," but again, I'll handle what comes when it comes. Once I get through Elliot's Cut successfully, I'll spend the night at the Charleston City Marina. That's actually as far as I have anything planned. When I get there I will sit down and plan the next jump. Rain or not, I will have to leave Charleston after one night as it costs $2/ft and that is a big chunk of change.

As I get farther up the ICW, I am more and more looking for the end of it. It had been a nice trip back but there is the desire to get home and it is growing. Even though I talk to people on the phone every day, it is not the same as knowing that they are right around the corner or just a shot hop in the car away. I am looking forward to seeing people and being appropriately "shocked" at home much they have "changed."

I got to see Guy yesterday and he looks well though he is still under the weather. For a gentleman in his 70's he is a ball of energy so it must have taken a lot of him as he tired so easily. Unless he makes it up for the Force 5 Nationals at TYC this summer, I doubt that I will ever have the opportunity to see him or his family again. Same with Dave "Dr. Fix-It" Dixon, though in Dave's case, he is talking about sailing with his wife to New England "in the future." Truth be told, most of the people I have met on the trip, so many of them really wonderful, I will probably not see again. Time and circumstances and situations just mitigate against it, . . . .then again you never really know.