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December 21 - 8:30AM we pulled anchor and got underway for our last 20 miles to Beaufort. This morning there couldn’t have been enough coffee in all of Costa Rica for me. We set off for Beaufort, and I placed a call to our contact there Don Thomas, a colleague from my dad’s company Moran Tugs.  We’d had a few items shipped on to his address, as there were a few items from Defender that we needed that had been on backorder, so our plan was to stop in Beaufort and collect them, as well as to add a few provisions.  We had a windy but fun trip down to Beaufort, including a two visits from our favorite animal companions, the dolphins!  I keep forgetting to write about the fact that we’re seeing them, a lot!  We actually saw a baby dolphin on this part of the trip, and Brian saw a dolphin jump clear out of the water! It’s pretty cool, because they swim alongside the boat, not quite close enough that you could touch them, but still really close, and they swim along with you for quite a while, it’s very neat.  Our entry into Bueafort was kind of funny, since Brian was on the phone letting Chief know about our engagement and catching up, and all of a sudden, we were approaching a bridge… now have no fear, this bridge was a fixed bridge with ample clearance, with a RR bridge that remains open except for when in use.  Of course, I’d missed that part in my brief review of Skipper Bob’s so I called down to Bri, who promptly hailed the next bridge on the list, the Beafort Bridge, which opens on the half hour.  Patiently, the bridge operator explained to us that we were hailing the wrong bridge (whoops!) but that he’d gladly open for us when we came through on the other side of Radio Island.  We cruised through the Hi-Rise bridge, and passed the Moran operations on our Starboard.  Brian took the helm as we headed around Radio Island and we pulled up and waited for the Beaufort Bridge to open.  We crossed through, and anchored in what we thought was the designated anchorage to be near the town docks.  Hmmm…. after anchoring, and checking the internet, we discovered that we were on the wrong side of the bridge.  Damn.  I called Don back to tell him of our mistake, and that we would be coming BACK through the Beaufort Bridge at the 3:30 opening.  At 3:15 Brian and I pulled up the anchor and began to make our way over to the bridge when suddenly… whoomph… we were aground in the mud.  We tried backing up, we tried easing forward… we were thoroughly stuck, so we pulled out the Genny (thank goodness that there was some wind!) and we heeled the boat over to Starboard JUST enough to get ourselves unglued from the muddy bottom. Now mind you, all of this is in MORE than full view of the bridge operators tower… and from down below we heard the bridge operator hail us “Three Sheets, this is the Beaufort Bridge, will open when you get over here”.  He was very nice about it, but I am sure we gave him a few good laughs in our efforts to get unstuck.  We crossed back through the bridge, and found ourselves a nice anchorage in the mooring field outside of the Beaufort Docks - directly across from the Post Office.  We loaded a few items into our trusty Portabote, including our garbage, and began our row into the beach.  As we pulled up to the beach, we heard a hail “hey is that Lynne? Don!”  and standing at the water’s edge was Don Thomas, along with his wife Terri and their puppy Tug.  As we hit the beach, Don grabbed our bowline and gave us a tug up onto the sand, and we did our formal introductions.  The Thomas’ couldn’t have been nicer or more welcoming. Not only had they brought us our packages that had been shipped to their home, but they also offered us use of one of their cars while we were in town, so that we could do any provisioning and run any errands that we might need to run!  Not only that, they brought us a fun car to use!! Don’s Miata!  We walked with them along the beautiful Main Street of Beaufort, and made the suggestion that we would like to take them to dinner for all of their kindness.  We initially settled on a beer, and went to the Royal James, which is a great local place, and as we got to talking, we decided that we’d indeed grab a bite of food, since we were all having such a nice time.  GREAT burgers there, and Yuengling on tap… couple that with great company, and you have the makings of a terrific evening!  We said goodbye to Don and Terri at about 8, and collected our packages from the trunk of the car before rowing back to the boat.  When we got back to the boat, I called my folks to tell them about how nice Don and Terri are, and to let them know that we were safely in Beaufort, then we settled in to watch a little “TV”  on the computer before heading to bed.  About 20 minutes into the show, I felt the boat swing around.  We were butt to butt with the boat next to us in the mooring field (they were on a fixed mooring) with only about 12 feet separating us.  I looked at Bri and said, I think we need to do something about this, and maybe take Don’s advice and snag a mooring for the night (there were several empty moorings in the mooring field) and the liklihood that a mooring’s owner was going to come back at 9:30 at night was slim. We fired up the engine, and hauled the anchor, and with me steering, we attempted to snag one of the moorings a little way down from where we’d been anchored… no luck.  We turned around and, fighting the current, motored up to a mooring across from the Beaufort Docks, after a couple of passes (I am NOT yet good at driving to snag a mooring) Brian and I switched positions (and don’t worry Mom, I was wearing my lifejacket just in case) and Brian eased us up to the mooring allowing me to snag it on our first pass! (He’s definitely WAY better at mooring approaches than I am!!!)  We secured the boat to the Darlin’ Arlin’s mooring - thank you to whomever owns that boat, and sorry that we snagged it on you but you weren’t here and we wanted to be safe for ourselves and everyone else in the mooring field!  Good thing that we did, that night was a howler, with wind whistling through the shrouds, and the current fighting it.  When we looked at the anchor alarm graph in the am, we’d swung in quite a few circles.