Friday – Sunday, May 24-26, 2019

As we left Harbor Village Marina, we were thankful to have learned that the Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune’s live fire operations/training had been canceled for the day.  Why would that be important to us? Well, the ICW goes directly through their firing range and if they were having a practice day, we wouldn’t have been allowed to transit through their space during that time (which makes perfect sense!) causing up to a four hour delay. Ugh! Fortunately, we were able to proceed on through which took about 40 minutes. We took some photos of what looked like practice targets that have been hit multiple times – I guess that’s good!

The rest of the trip was fairly uneventful. Fortunately, this time the flies we encountered were a mix of the giant flies and normal midwest-sized house flies, and not too many of them either – whew! After a little over seven hours on the water, we arrive at Homer Smith Docks & Marina in Beaufort, NC. Yes, we are staying at another town named Beaufort. The SC Beaufort is pronounced like the /byoo/ of beautiful. This Beaufort, in NC, is pronounced like the /boh/ in our pup’s name, Bosun. Why are they pronounced differently, especially considering they both refer to Henry Somerset, the 2nd Duke of Beaufort? We don’t really know. The name Beaufort actually refers to a castle in Champagne, France, and is the only dukedom to take its name from a place outside the British Isles. So, what IS the correct pronunciation? North Carolina wins that one with its BOH-fert. However, South Carolina’s BYOO-fert can claim to be the second oldest city in SC, whereas NC’s is only the 3rd oldest city in the state.

The dockmaster at Homer Smith's, Clark, was a great guy – extremely helpful and knowledgeable. The marina used to be a commercial fishing company with its own fleet of boats, but has now shut down its fishing operation. In place of it, they have created a marina business by adding nice, new floating docks, and they have plans to spruce it up into a resort type business over the next year or so. We think they’ll do great!

One evening, we unexpectedly hosted “docktails" with other Loopers and some of the local dockmates. It turned out that our boat created the largest shadow on the dock and provided just the right amount of breeze going by for a comfortable setting. We re-met a Looper couple from earlier in our trip, met a non-Looper couple, and another Looper couple who was new to us. Bo greeted everyone by barking at them, then settled down to tear apart one of his older toys to get to the squeaker. A good time was had by all!

It was a short walk across town to the main waterfront area with stores and restaurants along the the Beaufort Channel, which is just off the ICW. Homes over 100 years old had plaques on them indicating year built and original owner, just as we’d seen in previous towns. Some dates surprised us because they didn’t seem that “old.” For instance, a home built in 1912 isn’t very impressive compared to those built in the 1770s or even the farmhouse Brian grew up in – the original structure was started sometime in the early 1890s! (Though it no longer exists.)

One of the “sights” in town is the “Old Burying Ground” established in 1724. As we passed the local graveyard to get to it, we noticed a headstone with RAMSEY on it. We went in and looked around only to find many Ramsey headstones of those born in the 1800s and early 1900s! Hmmm…  On to the Old Burying Ground, which is unfortunately closed for repairs due to damage from Hurricane Florence. Yet the first thing we saw near the edge was a monument with the name – you guessed it – RAMSEY! It seems there were quite a few Ramseys in Beaufort, NC back in the 1800s, including Confederate soldiers. Brian doesn’t think they are related in any way – but it was quite a surprise!