Beauty and History
Trip Start
Apr 04, 2008
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102
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Trip End
Jul 03, 2009
Beaufort, North Carolina, United States
Sunday, May 31, 2009
We found a great anchorage in the river with the town on one side and the banks on the other. It was so pretty to go to bed and wake up to perfect stillness, not a ripple on the water with only the birds and the wild Spanish mustangs which live on Shackleford Banks grazing in the early morning without a care in the world and wading through the marshes.
Beaufort is celebrating its 300th birthday this year and besides having over 100 historical old homes, it has been though a few conflicts in its time with Pirates, The American Civil War and The Spanish Civil War
Fort Macon
. The home of Blackbeard the pirate was just in front of where we anchored and his ship "The Queen Anne's Revenge" was recently discovered late 1996 in the shoals of the Beaufort Inlet. And we all thought he was just a fairytale..... The other historical site is fort Macon which sits at the entry to Beaufort facing the Atlantic and though, through both conflicts, saw very little action.As we wandered around looking at the historic homes, mostly made of timber, some which are older than settled Australia, it amazed us that they are still standing today and still look beautiful. Almost every second home has the flag flying, whether historic or not and you can feel the patriotism in the air.
One of the highlights of Beaufort is their old cemetery, not neatly laid out like new ones but higgledy piggledy with old oak trees and bushes hiding sections so as you wander through each new area is a discovery. Some of the graves had fallen into disrepair while others were still in good condition, some told a story about the person, not just the birth and death dates but the number of years, months and days that, that person lived. One with a cannon embedded in his tomb was of a famous Privateer which is just a fancy way of saying a pirate who the government approved of
Beaufort Docks
. The people we have met through the southern states have a genuine warmth and are very friendly. They have a lovely accent, which is akin to most country songs you hear. (We are all a bit worried about Pete....he's been listening to country music far too much.) All up we spent 4 days in Beaufort and were a little sad to leave such a relaxing place. Our last night was at anchor off the pub on the river. We sat on the boat enjoying a beer and listened to the local country singer play covers to the pub crowd. The sun set over the river and left us with a beautiful magenta sky.
Tomorrow morning we leave early for an overnight sail up to the Chesapeake.
