June 1st thru June 3rd, 2007

The Beaufort Experience 

Onward mighty boaters!! Good times await in Beaufort!! True enough, although getting there was an experience in itself. Just before Merle and I pushed off from RiversEdge, Terry Melloy arrived asking for the nearest emergency room. Apparently Shirley lost an argument with a pop bottle top the smashed into here chin, requiring stitches. We sent them off to Xavier-St. Francis. The rendezvous went smoothly and we “steamed” smoothly to Beaufort, chatting away on Channel 69. Just before we came to the Beaufort Bridge, my boat, Sunday Drive, sounded a mighty alarm. Prudently we stopped, shut down and dropped anchor. Dave and Wendy had arrived at the Marina by that time and simply refused to answer our plea for help. Not to worry, our threesome (Dick, Gary and B.J.) were hovering close aboard. Then….a miracle! Terry and Shirley arrived and got us under tow. Two hundred yards later we were at the dock. We drew quite a crowd, none of whom wanted to handle a line or two including the dock master. Good grief……

So far, so good I’d say. But, Mother Nature had another idea called tropical storm Barry. We had predicted it would take some time to arrive at Beaufort, but it arrived Friday night and stayed through Sunday. Hey, lucky us. With winds gusting to 40 mph, we secured our boats and headed for the D-26 open bar and BBQ dinner followed by live entertainment. I believe Dave got up and sang something forgettable, although I hear he has a good voice. Dave, how about singing the National Anthem at the next member meeting? One verse would probably suffice!

Regrettably we had to cancel the on-water events Saturday and lunch was served at the motel. It was quite good and we had a great time. That evening we had an outdoor affair at the Downtown Park Pavilion complete with shag dancing. I must say it was terrific. It turned out that wine was included in the dinner price making it possible to stay warm, so to speak. Now, finding a drinking cup was a different issue. That after noon Terry, Gary, BJ and I think Dick went to pick up Terry’s boat trailer. Only three of them came back. You getting the picture here?

Sunday morning was a waiting game. Should we or shouldn’t we attempt to boat back to Charleston? I think this was the only time when watching the weather channel was “fun”. Finally, it looked like we would have a window starting about noon. By then I had a new thermostat in Sunday Drive and we made the decision to boat by jingo! Well we also have six boats from Lake Murray with us. Well, they took off at breakneck speed. I heard a few complaints about taking water over the bow as they blew through the rough water. In the end, we all wound up at the Wappoo Cut at the same time.

As we say, boating is always an experience. See you for the Georgetown cruise!

Art Clark Cruise Captain