April 10, 2021 Beaufort SC Our First Harbor Hosts

 Saturday April 10, 2021. Day 125.

Up early to get ready to meet Vicki and Mack, and straighten up Magic Moments a bit, in case they wanted to step aboard. Vickie and Mack are the Kadey Krogen Harbor Hosts in Beaufort, South Carolina. They just recently sold their boat “Confetti”, and moved into their new house.

We were at the marina in Port Royal which, fortunately, was very close to their home. They picked us up at 9:30am, and we went to an outdoor farmers' market which was great fun. We had fresh South Carolina oysters shucked by the fisherman and put right on our plate, for breakfast, and we bought bread, vegetables, fruits and a dessert sampler, for later.

Vickie bought some plants for her landscaping project at their new home.

We dropped Roland at the supermarket, and I went back with Vicki and Mack to see their home which was just charming. The house included an outside porch door entrance that had peaked my curiosity in Charleston. Now I was able to see the purpose and advantage of the arrangement from the inside. In the center of the porch, there was a separate stairway to the second floor. Clever design; one can enter the second floor from the screened in porch and never go through the first floor of the house (a perfect air bnb arrangement, with a bathroom and 2 bedrooms upstairs).

The L-shaped screened-in porch area was large and comfortable; perfect for enjoying the outside, bug free. They have a two sided fireplace between the dining room and the living room; (nice!), and a small but very well organized kitchen with an amazing pantry area. They have done a great job with this adorable home. We wished them the very best of luck. May they use it in good health as my grandmother always said.

We picked up Roland and went on a walking tour of historic Beaufort which had many interesting antebellum houses and amazing Southern Live Oak trees. Vicki and Mack pointed out several homes and locations where films had been shot: Forrest Gump, The Big Chill, The Great Santini, and The Prince of Tides.

We tried a myriad of outside restaurants and bars, to have lunch on the waterfront, in both Beaufort and Port Royal, but although most of the restaurants had several empty tables, the wait was over an hour. Apparently they are all understaffed. We experienced a shortage of help problem in Belhaven NC, a few weeks later. The pandemic unemployment support has some serious negative effects in some geographic areas. Maybe a higher minimum wage is worth considering so that it makes sense for folks to work.

We finally decided on a takeout place that specialized in Gullah Tingz. food from a group of people who are descended from slaves, and still have their own community and dialect. According to Wikipedia:

“Because of a period of relative isolation from whites while working on large plantations in rural areas, the Africans, enslaved from a variety of Central and West African ethnic groups, developed a creole culture that has preserved much of their African linguistic and cultural heritage from various peoples; in addition, they absorbed new influences from the region. The Gullah people speak an English-based creole language containing many African loanwords and influenced by African languages in grammar and sentence structure. Sometimes referred to as "Sea Island Creole" by linguists and scholars, the Gullah language is sometimes likened to Bahamian Creole, Barbadian Creole, Guyanese Creole, Belizean Creole, Jamaican Patois and the Krio language of West Africa. Gullah crafts, farming and fishing traditions, folk beliefs, music, rice-based cuisine and story-telling traditions all exhibit strong influences from Central and West African cultures.”

We went back to Mack's and Vickie‘s home and ate all our fantastic Gullah takeout (wings, ribs, and Capt Crip's Gullah Boli), on their screened-in porch. It was an amazing day.

Vicki and Mack could not have been kinder and more generous and we could have never really gotten the flavor (no pun intended), and for Beaufort, South Carolina, without them.

It was great fun talking about many of the other wonderful Kadey Krogen owners we have met this winter and that they have known through their years of boating. And, there is the advise that they shared based on the five years they lived on “Confetti”.

This was our first Harbor Host experience; the bar has been started really high.

Thank you so much, Vicki and Mack.