Horses and Birds

We got to Beaufort, NC two days ago and are leaving here today to go south.  This turned out to be a good stop in  a couple of ways. 

Yesterday, when we thought we had a day to spend for fun, we noticed that our bilge was way full and discovered that the bilge pump just wouldn't work even when Tom connected it directly to a battery.   While Tom was mechanicing,  I bailing out the bilge, by taking cups of water, putting them into a bucket, then dumping them out.  I bet I got ten buckets.  I eventually got ALL the water out of the bilge by sponge and cleaned it.   Meanwhile, Tom, after calling around, found that the marina, just 200 feet from where we were anchored had the exact replacement bilge pump.   I went over and got it and Tom installed it so by 1 p.m., we had a new pump installed and a lovely clean bilge.

And the sun was out!  So we took our newly refurbishsed dinghy around to the river running through Beaufort.  On the other side of the river is a Rachel Carson Nature Reserve.  Apparently this is a place Carson frequented.    

The first things we saw were about 12 tall white birds with orange hooked bills.  We later learned they are white ibises.

Our most fun discovery was the horses.   About 90 years ago, a man let his five horses roam over here and later just left them.   They have become a herd that is now protected.     We saw two groups of five and the single one grazing by the shore.

 We took the dinghy to shore several times to see what we could, including having lunch out looking over grasses, waters and many birds.