Port Royal, Beaufort County, South Carolina
 
It is a pleasure to disclose that Lynn & I are once again national real estate moguls.  If you believe that owning five rental properties in two states constitutes moguling, that is.
 
We have entered into a contractual agreement to buy a property and have an offer on a second in South Carolina.  One is in Port Royal and the other in Beaufort. 
 
One of our goals during our travels was to find a place to live in the future when we decide to swallow the anchor.  Don’t think we are near ready to stop cruising and we are not at all sure this will be our home port when we do.  But we felt it was imperative to buy something soon, so that the market place wouldn’t slip by us and then completely out of our grasp.  We realized this could happen as we saw friends and heard of others that hit the beach bewildered at the current prices compared to what they had sold years ago.  They were unable to live in the manner in which they had formerly been accustomed to living. 
 
We then saw others that jumped into the market in locations that would allow them to live comfortably.  For inadvertently calling this to our attention, we wish to thank Mark & Joyce, Gail & Gary and Phil & Gwen. 
 
Our decision is predicated on the proposed fact that once we come off the water from living aboard, we will sell the boat and become abnormal land folks and simply have a small boat or two that we can throw in the water from a launch ramp.  Not planning on having a waterfront lot of substance means we can buy a few income properties in different locations and when we decide where we want to live move into one of the rentals and sell off the others we have collected or some variation on this theme.
 
We simply don’t want to be left out in the cold with no choices. 
 
Now we had not really planned on Beaufort.  We simply came in for a single overnight or two.  One thing lead to another.  Actually, I think it was one wine lead to another at Ollie’s Grill and the grill owner, Christina, and Lynn got together giggling over wine and Chris suggested this really, really handsome Realtor to show us around.    
 
Just like the wine, one property lead to another and, well, here we are holding property in the land of Blackbeard,  Plantations, Civil Wars and the best eating food in the world.  I can’t tell you how much weight we have gained in the last ten days.  But I am pretty sure no matter where Lynn kisses me she will be kissing my grits and girth.  Did I tell you about the Chocolate dessert we had yesterday afternoon?  It is so delicious and so large they don’t even have a name for it.  They can’t find one that does it justice.  They just call that “chocolate stuff”.
 
Jeez, no matter what subject we start out with we end up talking about food.  Why is that?
 
We are buying two properties because we each found one we felt was extremely special.  The one I like the best is a 2200 s.f. manufactured home on 2.5 acres of land with several trees surrounded by dense woods.  It also has a significant pond across the front of the property.  It is comfortable country living and it has good rental prospects.
 
Now I, Lynn, cut in and tell you that the one I found is a 1950’s 1300sf cottage with real oak floors and fireplace in the growing little community of Port Royal.  The ½ acre lot includes a separate garage and storage in a neighborhood that is being renovated one house at a time.   The sellers have done some work on it but there is plenty of room to continue to improve and still not over improve for the area.  It will make a good rental as is for now.  I hope this doesn’t mean that we end up living in two separate houses!
 
So now, over the next few days, we need to determine our schedule of events and where the heck we are going to be and what we are going to do.  Maybe we leave for Florida in the next few days and come back after closing to do what we need to do to rent these things.  Maybe we stay and….Gee, the possibilities are endless.  Guess we need to wait for the home inspections to see what needs to be done before we go forward with planning.  Pretty sure we will be stuck in Beaufort for Thanksgiving.
 
Aw, but this is a cruising log, so enough of this, yucky, land based dribble, time to get back to cruising, water, and wild life.  That reminds me, wonder if they have a hOOters here in Beaufort?
 
 
Capt'n Lynnie and Skinwalker