Wild Horses Drag Us In

Excited for another day in Beaufort (pronounced "Boe-fort", by the way) we woke up and headed in for breakfast and more uploading at the library. We stopped into a coffee house and had some pastries, chai tea and Tanzanian Peaberry coffee. We then walked the block to the library and uploaded until we had to go meet our date at the museum. The whale of a car awaited us. We slid in and cruised on to the outer reaches Beaufort.

It was mostly suburby. Not where one would prefer to stroll. We passed various dusty buildings wearing hand painted signs that advertise bar-b-que or shrimp. Each looking worthy of a closer look and taste. We turned into the hopping Food Lion parking lot, passing christmas trees for sale and signs for many holiday bargains. It was fun to walk around in the grocery store at this time of year. Towers of canned pumpkin pie filling and evaporated milk barricade the isles. Hefty Turkeys wrapped in plastic are piled high in the open refrigerators. We equipped ourselves with our usual fare along with pie crusts, light karo syrup, and pecans for some thanksgiving pecan pies.

On the way back Hannah and the groceries got dropped off at the dinghy and Tim gave the keys back to the museum, with a newly added Food Lion card attached. We rowed the goods back to Slowly and had lunch before we set out on our next adventure.

On the other side of Slowly from Beaufort is Carrot Island. We were thinking of swimming to the shore which was about 20 ft away but the current seemed too strong and we didn't want to end up drifting into any obstacles. We rowed Surely the short distance and pulled her up onto the beach where we attempted to take a picture with us and Slowly. This visit to Carrot Island had a specific purpose: to see the wild pony horses that live there. We were unsure what to expect though Hannah had read a little about them, knowing that they were on the small side, and that they were pretty tame (so we were not about to face some huge ferocious animals). They are officially "wild" because they live there without any help from us humans. They find their own food, water and whatever else they may need.

They were easier to find than we thought. We tramped down the beach and through some grasses and after about three minutes, turning towards the other side of the narrow island, we saw them. It was an amazing sight. It felt a little like being in an animal petting zoo because they didn't seem to mind us at all. But there were no fences, and no designated hay for us to hand them. We kept our distance and watched them while they watched us. There were a bunch of them, and more kept appearing from the bushes.

The setting was superb. The sun was low and the marshy islands expanded in front of us. The coats on the horse ponies were fluffy and with their disheveled hair flowing in the wind, many looked like surfer dudes or horse models. After strolling around the somewhat surreal island, we took our pictures (just like at the zoo! hmmmm) with the wild horse ponies, and headed back to Slowly in Surely.

The afternoon was pleasant resting on the boat, and we began to work on the designs for the new merchandise. This process continued until 9 o'clock and only paused during a dinghy ride ashore and a walk to the library where we continued our work and uploaded the new designs on a multitude of items. As creativity is so fun, and we were psyched to have gotten it done, we celebrated after with a proud dinner at the Royal James. Once again having exhausted ourselves, we headed back to the boat where we were soon asleep, preparing for a long day of cruising south ahead.