OtherGoose: Wednesday and Thursday Dec 17/18

Wednesday Dec 17

See...this is why sailors aren’t supposed to have a schedule. Tomorrow is Thursday and we are supposed to leave. But Rick and Mark were talking about their projects and splitting a sheet a sheet of PVC board (looks like starboard but not so dense) and we were looking for other marinas that let you work on stuff, and we checked out the shop where there are more tools than even Rick had! And so...

We’re staying until Sunday. We decided we will spend Christmas day together somewhere in an anchorage and we are going to have a non-Christmas dinner. We are going to find a big fish to stuff and have exotic vegetables and fruit with it. If we can’t go to a show, we will watch a movie and eat popcorn. We might make Georgia by Christmas Day or w might still be somewhere in South Carolina, but it’s still shorts weather so we’re good with that. And if you don’t believe it , check out the pics.

Today Rick got the new hatch screen installed. Now we don’t have to keep moving it around the boat so it doesn’t break! Makes the salon head look finished...almost. I worked on reducing my stash of paper and books and “Stuff” and we sorted the workshop AGAIN. Tomorrow I will finish the laundry [all our summer clothes need to be washed and dried] and store the winter clothes finally.

Tomorrow we are going on a plantation tour. We booked it, and they are picking us up!!! A bit expensive but it was on the list of things to do. Then we will get at the other chores on the list. We were going to wait until we get to Florida but some of them can be done here with this amazing workshop.

Thursday, Dec.18

Last night we went to the Fillin’ Station again for dinner. $4.00 for a hamburger, and a hot dog [real meat!!! Not a grocery store hot dog] potato salad and beans. I couldn’t cook it myself that cheaply and it was delicious...so was the beer! AND I took my own corn wrap for the burger and dog, and there was no gluten in anything! But I am going to have to do a lot of walking in the next 3 days to get rid of the rich food I’ve had lately. It’s been a week and I still didn’t get to the yoga class here. What a waste!

This marina building not only houses awesome showers and laundry, but there are yoga classes, a fabric shop, a real estate office [in case you get hooked here and it’s tempting but Jack, you want to be a bit further south right?!] and a few other shops. The grocery store is a half-mile away, there are 2 marine stores and a hardware store in walking distance as well as 3 strip malls with all kinds of stores.

Thursday 18^th con’t’d

Our plantation tour was spectacular. The tour guide is a historian and “benye”. “Benye all ma life!” So is her father. Her great, great grandfather served under General Robert E. Lee. [For you young people, he was the Confederate General who led the Southern Rebellion.]

It was a driving tour and she took us to 4 different plantation areas. She told us about the unique history of Beaufort. It’s where the very first slaves were freed. And where the first saves were allowed to go to school. It’s where the Secession talks were held when the South decided to leave the Union, and one of the only towns not burned to the ground when the Union soldiers arrived because it was deserted! All the residents fled and didn’t fight so the town was left intact and taken by the government. Only a half dozen of the original residents returned to claim their homes; most moved into the west or north but some went to Brazil.

She showed us the slave quarters and where they worshipped, and told us how they bought and inherited the plantation lands. We saw the location of the old cotton fields and pecan orchards and how the new technology and lack of slaves changed the area: tomatoes and watermelon are the cash crop of the area now. One farmer made something like 1.2 million on his tomato crop.

The swamp grass is called Spartina, and the slaves used it to make baskets along with the Saw Palmetto leaves and cordgrass.

I can’t tell you enough of what I learned today: so much of the history of this area gets lost in the generic history of the South and the war. She said, although no-one today condones slavery, most slaves were treated well: they earned money: they were given tasks according to their skills and age and abilities: a female slave cost $1500.00, a male $1000.00 during the prime slave trading era. They were highly priced, highly prized “assets” so were taken care of.

It was certainly an entertaining education, and I’m really glad we went. We would never have seen the things we saw because she is from an old family, and had access to more than the average tour. ‘Course we heard a lot about her family...but when ya’ got it, flaunt it! So I will let the pictures speak for themselves...

New Oceanair hatch screen