21 Aug 13

Slept in as we are waiting to time our arrival at Beaufort for LW slack - 16:00, which means we need to leave about 13:00 or so. We read and lazed about all morning and then about the time to go, noticed there was a huge storm right over the top of Beaufort. We waited for nearly an hour and it seemed like the storm was moving off to the west. Got the hook up and left Mackay Creek about 13:15. Motored and sailed down Chechessee River and Port Royal Sound with the ebb behind us, at 8.7 kn SOG, until we turned up the Beaufort River and were bucking the ebb, SOG dropped to 4.2 kn, but that was a good speed to get us to Port Royal Landing Marina at LW slack. We docked about 15:45, pumped out the holding tanks and got ready to go get some Mexican food at the local eatery. As usual, east of Texas, the Mexican food was a bit of a disappointment, although the margaritas were fine. Back on the boat, we watched a movie on Netflix.

22 Aug 13

Since the marina offered loaner bikes, we borrowed their bikes and rode the 3 miles into historic Beaufort. This is a beautiful little town, with dozens of antebellum homes in the historic part of town. We visited the Visitor Center/museum and toured Verdier House, which is the only antebellum home in town open to the public; all others are still privately held and lived in. A number of them line the river banks and are very pleasing to the eye. We ate lunch at Blackstones Cafe and spent all afternoon riding around town looking at the historic homes and churches. Beaufort escaped the destruction of much of this part of the south, as it was captured in early 1862 by the Union forces, who held it throughout the war. After riding back to the boat late in the afternoon, we had dinner aboard.

23 Aug 13

First thing after breakfast, I decided to finally go ahead and change the fuel/water separator filter element. This was easier than I thought and afterward, we got our own bikes off the boat and went for a ride to historic Port Royal. Port Royal has a few historic homes, but was obviously the poor cousin of Beaufort and has not participated in the recent upsurge in tourism enjoyed by Beaufort. Still, they had a very good BBQ - Smokin’ Planks - place where we lunched. We also rode down to the park at the confluence of the Beaufort River and Battery Creek, directly across from Parris Island (Marine Corp Recruit training camp), and watched the dolphins at play; there must have been 30 or 40 of them cavorting in the shallows just off the point - quite a display.

Back at the boat, we noticed a smell of diesel in the main cabin (not good). I immediately went to the fuel/water separator, and it was leaking at a furious rate, even though I had obviously checked it after the maintenance in the morning. We stopped the leak by resetting the seal at the top of the cup, but unfortunately, quite a bit of diesel had leaked into the bilge - maybe as much as a couple of liters. We poured lots of bilge cleaner into the bilge, pumped it out, repeated twice and wiped out the bilge manually, all of which took till nearly midnight, but could still smell the diesel all night long; not good.  

24 Aug 13

We rented a car from Enterprise for the weekend. First, I made a trip to West Marine and loaded up on bilge cleaner and some citrus-based de-greaser, which we applied to the bilge. Still lots of diesel droplets creeping out of nooks and crannies of the bilge. About noon, we took a drive east on the Sea Island Parkway, stopping first at the Penn Center, where Martin Luther King, Jr., prepared his first drafts of his “I Have a Dream” speech. This place started as a school for freed slaves and their offspring and is now a Gullah museum. Later, we drove to Fripp Island, which, it turns out, is a private island where we were not allowed. Driving back, we stopped at Gullah Grub, which was closed at they go to worship on Saturday, but Jery Taylor was on the porch (as promised in the guide books) weaving her classic baskets. They are beautiful works of art, so of course we had to buy a few for ourselves. We had a nice chat with Jery and her sister. We had lunch at the Foolish Frog, typical low country grub, nothing remarkable. We drove around Dataw and Coosaw Islands and then stopped at Publix on the way back to the boat. Then we had another exciting evening cleaning out the bilges. It is getting better, but the smell of diesel is still obvious when you first come down the hatch.

25 Aug 13

Sunday morning, we cleaned the bilges again and then went for a long drive onto the mainland. We were looking for the Low Country Visitor Center and Museum, but never did manage to find it. So, we finally gave up and came back to Beaufort for a late lunch at Luther’s Rare and Well Done. It was an absolutely gorgeous day, so we sat out on the patio and enjoyed the weather and river views. Afterwards, we bought ice cream from Kooky Mookies (or something like that) and sat in one of the porch swings on the riverside for about an hour, dozing and chatting; what a good way to spend a Sunday afternoon. Back on the boat, we flushed out the bilges once again, then decided to go out for a movie; we saw “The Butler” - good story and well acted by Forest Whittaker and Oprah Winfrey, along with a cast of thousands. I also loved John Cusack’s portrayal of Nixon and Alan Rickman’s portrayal of Reagan.

26 Aug 13

Took the rental car back and then cleaned the bilges one more time. This time I flushed twice with bilge cleaner, then took ALL of the floorboards up, sponged everything dry, vacuumed, sprayed down every surface with the citrus cleaner and wiped it all down twice. The bilges have never been this clean and I think I finally got all (or near as damn-it) the diesel out of the bilges; hope I do not have to repeat that whole exercise any time soon. Terri did laundry and I cleaned the deck and topsides. Before we knew it, it was time for sun-downers and dinner (pork chops and fresh ears of corn, all grilled on the BBQ) - delicious. Two Advil and early to bed. We are on the go again tomorrow.