Cruiser's Privilege

Beaufort, SC Public Library
No LL

I was going to leave here yesterday morning, but it dawned as such a beautifully pleasant day that I wanted to stay to explore Beaufort with Libby. I was going to leave here this morning, but when I checked the weather at 0600 this morning, it said gale warning for tonight. It was also very cold with the local radio reporting scattered frost. That was enough for me to roll over and pull up the blanket. We're staying yet another day.

Actually, I heard some nameless cruiser in Vero Beach express it best. He said, "The cruiser's privilege is to decide every morning -- Shall I stay here, or travel to some other place. -- If I travel, where shall I go?" In a nutshell, that freedom we enjoy is shared by very few people in this world. This morning, I exercised my cruiser's privilege.

We did explore Beaufort on foot yesterday. There are many huge, elegant, and stately houses. It would be high on our list of historic and beautiful cities in the South like Edendown, Bath, Georgetown, and Saint Mary's. Perhaps it would be the best of all of them, were it not for one thing. We saw zero of them with signs proclaiming their status on the national register of historic places. I suspect that the explanation lies in an inscription we saw in the park. It said, "In 1893 a great storm came ashore at the high tide, piling water on water until the islands were swept clean of agriculture and shipping. Thousands were drowned." Boy, what an event. It could happen again, but if it did we would blame it on global warming.

We also saw an amazingly large number of cemeteries in the city. One, when we saw it from a distance, looked to us like Arlington National Cometary. Sure enough, when we got close, the sign said Beaufort National Cometary. That is a very historic and beautiful place, authorized in 1863 by Abraham Lincoln.

Our current plan is to depart tomorrow. We might have 4 consecutive days of strong (25-30 knot) winds from the NW. That means that we could get all the way to Fort Pierce in about 55 hours and cut out 2-3 more weeks of motoring on the ICW. We'll try for that. As a backup plan though, I charted a route that allows us to stop at Fernandina Beach (111 miles), Saint Augustine (160 miles), Port Canaveral (260 miles), or Fort Pierce (320 miles). That gives us lots of room for contingencies if the weather gets too rough.

Blog reader Mike had invited us to lunch in Fernandina. In case we miss that Mike, I apologize. We'll catch you next time through.