Beaufort - at a mooring

Beaufort waterfront - nice park

We had a relaxing day, leaving the dock at 8:30 and heading for the 9:00 bridge opening. We were packed in tight so we did the reverse maneuver which consists of putting a fender on the  bow, leading a line from the bow cleat to the dock and powering forward which results in the aft end of the boat rotating out into the river, away from the dock. At that point, I released the bow line and Ann backed the boat the rest of the way out, simple.

I'm not sure what they were playing, bocce?

We had it timed so we hit all the shallow spots with plenty of high tide. That takes a lot of the butterflies out, no sweat when you have a 7 ft tide! We made it through Fields Cut and Mud River, we could have floated over dry land at low tide.

We reached Beaufort by 2:30 and were ready to go further but we were losing the high tides by then and could not have made it through the trouble spots ahead so we stopped for the night and picked up a mooring.

Glorious! 

Beaufort is a beautiful town with a great walk by the river. They've invested in waterfront improvement in a big way. I wish Poughkeepsie would do the same, oh well. We will pick the 9:00 bridge opening on Wednesday and aim for the Steamboat anchorage and Charleston the day after that. The weather has turned beautiful with lots of sun and warm winds, hope it holds.