Here we are on Wayward Wind on the Coosaw River, north of Beaufort, SC. Our new friend, Mike Harris - boat mechanic extraordinaire and "Floating Poet" - took this photo of us. You're supposed to notice that the boathouse in the background was featured in Forest Gump. The docks behind our boat were also in the film when Forest runs his boat into the dock and greets Major Dan.
About Mike, what a godsend! What a character! At the anchorage at Bull Creek, our windlass (the motor that pulls up the anchor) stopped working! Dave ratcheted by hand the anchor on 100 feet of chain. Dave had been pretty perky about the frustrations of dealing with the mechanics of the boat, unlike me who gets really frustrated. But this one even got to Dave. Feeling kind of low, we pulled into Beaufort and got in touch with a mechanic who said he could come the next day and suggested we dock at the city courtesy day dock in the morning.
Mike Harris showed up bright and early and started right in with testing the switches, finding the relay, and cleaning all of the battery terminals. While doing so, this spunky, happy guy said in his southern accent, "I'm the floating poet. You can find me on YouTube under 'floatingpoet.' I like to write po-ems and I like to make people laugh. Can I tell you a poem?" He then told a funny poem, which did make us laugh. This is not the poem he told, but it will give you a flavor, if you dare... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xiihBqXOWFg Then he went to work on the windlass in earnest and with pounding, and that's what did it. Some of the bearings were stuck, and he unstuck them and got it to work. So between the po-ems and the working windlass, we were happy.
We enjoyed the town of Beaufort, SC. We anchored out for three nights and walked around looking at the revitalized downtown area and antebellum homes along the river. Beaufort was one of the first southern towns to fall to the Union Army during the Civil War. The residents fled and the Union leaders set-up headquarters and other operations in the mansions; therefore, they were not burned to the ground during Sherman's March to the Sea. It's difficult to view the opulence of these homes without thinking of the slaves upon whose backs the South rose to wealth. Actually this is stated on the historical plaques in the city river park area.
The day before Mike fixed the windlass, a neighbor at the anchorage was riding by in his dinghy. We waved hello, so he came by the boat. Turns out Roddy and his wife, Nancy, are from Quincy, Calif. (Sierra foothills). He's a retired psychologist who didn't know a thing about boats when they bought their motor vessel, Delusions. It's as if Dave had paid him to say, "The first year and a half, a day didn't go by without something breaking. It drove me crazy, but it got better after that." I said that I could completely relate. The next thing we knew, he was on the boat, getting on his hands and knees to help us figure out the windlass problem. That's how people are on boats. They bend over backwards to help you out. It's really something. We decided to get together that night with Roddy and Nancy for dinner in town to have some southern cooking. Turned out to be a bit upscale so not exactly "down home cookin" but very good. I tried the soft-shelled crab, a first for me. The soft shell gives the crab a crunch. Even though I prefer crab meat as we have it on the West Coast, I'm glad I tried it. The chicken and sausage gumbo was tangy and hearty.
Yesterday we left Beaufort, but in less than a mile, the engine began to overheate. We anchored and tried to figure out what to do. So discouraging. We found that if we ran the engine very slowly, it did not get too hot. Mike had invited us to visit him at his dock about eleven miles up the river, so we called him to see if he could help us out if we got up to his place. He said that he was taking his son fishing but to come on by and he could help us later in the afternoon. With permission, we docked in front of a dock house across from Mike's that belongs to a Dr. Bell, a "feller with lots of money" who doesn't use the dock much. Mike drove his golf cart across the bridge to the dock. He figured out the problem right away. The sea water intake was clogged, probably with grass, so he showed us how to clear it out. He also spent time showing us some other maintenance that we should do.
Afterwards, we walked over the bridge to the boathouse where Mike works for another man, Stan, who runs a little tourboat operation. They told us that Lucy Point Creek is the best place in the world. Nothing bad ever happens, and it hardly ever gets up to 100 degrees, and they haven't had a hurricane in years, and the last one was in the 70's and that didn't amount to much, and the one before that was in 1959 and that was all wind and no water and the one before that was in 1940. Mike showed us some large glossy photos from the filming of Forest Gump and then let us take his golf cart up the road for a spin just to see the countryside. It is beautiful and peaceful, and I can understand their love for the place.
It was a calm night and being tied to the dock meant no rocking at all. That night, we had the best sleep.
Tonight is a different story. We had a good sail to Church Creek on the Wadmalaw Sound, but we are having a flood tide (an exceptionally high tide) along with stout winds. The boat is turning on its anchor and the wavelets are slapping at the stern, which makes it hard to sleep. Not to mention that the stuffing box on the engine shaft is dripping more than it should which makes the automatic bilge pump go off more than it should. The manual bilge pump isn't working properly, we discovered. That's two things to fix tomorrow. Good thing we had good sleep last night. Always an adventure.
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