A pair of sailing enthusiasts realized they had been searching for homes in the wrong Beaufort, but soon realized it was the right place for them.

By Nancy Keates
Photographs by Kelli Boyd for the Wall Street Journal

In 2018, Bill and Rhonda Anderson went looking for a second home—a place to eventually retire. They’d read that Beaufort, N.C., was nirvana for sailboat enthusiasts, which they were, and so they flew east from their home in Salt Lake City and spent a few days with a real-estate agent looking at properties. They were charmed by the small town they saw. But one thing confused them: the water in front of the homes they looked at wasn’t very deep.