Charleston to Beaufort, SC ("Bu-fort" as opposed to "Bo-fort, NC). Easy 68 mile run on a beautiful day. Have all the back canvas down from moonlight cruise with Lexi last night. Love feeling a little less confined. Planned 10:15am undo lines in Charleston, all lines and fenders in and stowed by 10:30am and run for a 1:00pm (slack tide) arrival at Beaufort. Arrived at Beaufort at 12:45pm. Like a good plan, although I was 15 minutes early. Average speed 30.22mph (ran 35-37 but had a few sailboat slowdowns and a ripping current running against me in Wappoo Creek no wake zone). More dolphins today including a little guy all by himself. There have been a lot of comments about the currents here at the Town Docks so I wanted to arrive at slack tide. I did and it was as easy as could be. Later as the 7-1/2 foot tidal change occurred I could see what all of the fuss was about. The marina sits out in the Beaufort River and it really moves. If your coming here, plan your arrival and departure on the slack.
The marina is connected to the Beaufort waterfront park which has been beautifully created. Went to lunch at Plums. Fine food, but the best part is the back porch overlooking the park and the river. Plums is also a hot night scene for the younger locals. Want to hear a local band try to play your favorite songs loudly, through a poor sound system? They had heart and a good crowd. Took a carriage ride tour of the city. Beaufort is the 2nd oldest city in South Carolina and there is a lot of history here. There have also been a number of movie shoots here including Forrest Gump, The Big Chill, Prince of Tides, Forces of Nature, Rules of Engagement, Jungle Book, White Squall, Something to Talk About, The Legend of Bagger Vance, GI Jane, and The Last Dance.
I called Trina (regular ICW cruiser) to see if she had a dinner recommendation for me here. She was in the middle of her nightly sunset celebration in Marathon, FL. She has provided a number of great recommendations along the way. None for here unfortunately. So using every internet resource possible, I ended up choosing a restaurant called Breakwaters. Wow, what a great choice. It's upscale, but my jeans and polo fit in just fine. They pride themselves on their wine list and they have done a magnificent job of choosing. There were so many wonderful sounding menu choices that I ended up getting a sampler plate so that I could try 4 dishes. Everything was perfect. This restaurant is very professionally run, it shows in the service, the choices and the quality of the food. You could drop this restaurant anywhere in the country and it would be a hit. I spoke with the owner Donna (her husband is one of the two Executive Chefs). They moved here from Atlanta and opened the restaurant 8 years ago. About 80% of the guests are local which says a lot about a restaurant of this scale and about their survival. Her and her husband travel to Savannah a couple of times each month so they gave me some great places to go there. If the chef of a restaurant you love, tells you the place he loves... you have to go. Secret for now. Donna also told me that their number one competitor in town (in terms of quality & dining) is a restaurant called Saltus River Grill (nice fire pit outside on the river as there). If you've got 2 nights here, make that one of them as well although there are so many choices on the Breakwaters menu you may need to eat a few nights here. My server was named Alison, great service and she is a wine lover as well so when the dinner crowd was gone she sat down with me and made some nice additional recommendations. I tried a few. She filled me in on the local bar and restaurant scene as well as telling me about a lot of great things here I want to use for an episode of the show. Sorry not telling now, it's a show secret.
Next stop, Hemingway's. This is a tiny local bar that you will only find if you are walking along the waterfront park (backside) of all of the restaurants on the main street. Drinks are cheap. The drink of choice... jello shots for $1. Pick your color. As the bartender said, they ALL taste like vodka. The walls and ceilings are covered in dollar bills. No jello shot for me after 3 glasses of wine at Breakwaters. I settled for a Margarita. I think I've had more to drink in the past 7 days then in the past 7 months. But it's the best way to really get the flavor of a town. I guess I could just put down $5 and ask for water and it would hurt less.
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