CODA : Lost in the South Carolina ICW
Lady's Island Marina, Beaufort, South Carolina
The Great Egret welcome committee to Beaufort (pronounced Bew-fert).
Marc- Well we did it again, travelled over 56 miles through rivers, creeks bays and cuts and traversed some skinny water too. It all comes down to calculating where to be and when there will be high enough water at a given location. No need for tide tables as in days of yore there is now an App. for that. You pull up the app. tough your finger at a given location and then scroll to the time you hope to be there and it tell you how much water you have as well as if it rising or falling. A falling tide is bad in the boating world.
Passage calculations allowing for passage at half tide or better.
Beaufort has a famous swing bridge over the Beaufort River. The running bridge interview scene in Forrest Gump was filmed on the Woods Memorial Bridge, which connects Beaufort to Lady's Island. The locals here will never let the State replace it with one of those hi-rise 65 foot bridges that people can just by-pass the whole town without stopping. This town is close to a the US Marine Corps Air Station and to the Parris Island Marine Training Center. Several jet fighters flew by us every fifteen minutes when we passed the air station in the ICW. Beaufort also has numerous old colonial homes and shops.
The inside command center very useful on a rainy day like today.
That one windshield wiper does work.
I will end the day's entries with how it began. Sara took this photo at 06:30.
Lou- Bad start to the day! I saw the news on my phone when I woke up and kept refreshing, hoping it would change.
Sending love and hugs to everyone having a hard time today!
Dad and I were pretty stunned and had a quiet breakfast of omelets and coffee.
I didn't read at all today; just checked on friends and stared at my phone. I was so dazed that my first time at the wheel I got us pretty off course. But luckily I came to and noticed that I was getting raather close to shore, and Dad confirmed that I should definitely take a hard left. After that, I was more focused.
Some things that comforted me today: Jason Isbell's music and pelicans. The former because he's just lovely and brilliant and sings right from the heart. The latter because nothing changed for them between yesterday and today. They're totally chill, just living their bird lives.
"Say something about the dolphins!" Dad's saying as I type this.
"But I didn't see any dolphins today."
"I saw one! And how about the jets? Did you say something about the jets?"
The military jets felt kind of ominous and freaky to me as the shot loudly over us and disappeared into the clouds.
"And they'd whirl and twirl," Dad's saying.
Well, that sounds kind of whimsical, so that's a nice balance to my grimness. I appreciate Dad's perspective.
Around 2:30pm, we arrived at Lady's Marina in the pouring rain! A very cheerful lady came to greet us and help us dock though, so that was rad.
Then, most exciting of all, we got to SHOWER! and walk! and do laundry!
On our walk, Dad pointed out the bridge from the Forrest Gump movie (that Forrest runs over while getting begged by reporters, "Why are you doing this?? You must have a reason!!"). When we got back to the boat, we watched a clip from the movie and now I want to re-watch it! Also maybe run all my woes away. Forrest ran for 3 years! Anyone else up for it?
Dad's falling asleep and I'm about to call a friend so I'll end here.
Hugs!
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