Days 341-343

Wilmington NC -Beaufort NC

Start 6:55 AM
End 7:25 PM
Underway 12:25 Hours
Distance 98 Miles
Total Miles on Trip 5548
Av Speed 7.9 knots
Weather Cloudy , 72 Degrees, Wind 11 Knots SSW

Once again we changed our plans underway. We had planned on anchoring at Mile Hammock Bay, at Camp Lejeune, but we decided to continue on to Beaufort NC. What was supposed to be a seven hour run turned into over a twelve hour run. It was a good decision, but it was still a long tiring day. Our first challenge was getting to the Onslow Beach Swing Bridge, for their timed opening. Once we decided to go to Beaufort, I did the calculations, and realized at our current speed we would miss the 3pm opening by 5 minutes, and would have to wait for the 3:30 opening. Both Mark (Kay Dee) & I agreed it would be worth speeding up, to avoid the wait. It was a challenge, because of some no wake areas, and some shallow water we had make up time in other areas. We did make it with minutes to spare! This is the second tie I have "raced" to get to the Onslow Beach Bridge. The first time I was with a friend bringing his boat from Florida to New Jersey, and we pushed the boat as hard as he dared to get to the bridge for an opening. As we approached the bridge, we saw several boats waiting for it to open, only to realize they were all anchored. The bridge had broken during the last opening, and they were waiting for mechanics to come fix it. We waited there for five hours.

Going through Camp Lejeune was cool, we literally boated right through a live fire range. They do close the waterway when there is a live fire exercise, and you cannot go ashore at any time. There are signs along the river banks warning you that there are unexploded munitions present. Also along the banks are the remnants of bombed out armored vehicles. After passing Camp Lejeune we only had another 4 hours to go until we arrived at Beaufort NC. We arrived there about 7:15, and the marina staff was nice enough to wait for us to arrive and get us in our slips. Once again our dock neighbors made us feel like a toy boat in a bathtub. The directions for finding our slip were "turn in the fairway directly in front of the 105' Yacht, your slips is right next to it." We were very surprised at the number of large yachts stopping at Beaufort. My thoughts are they come here because the marina is a deep water marina, very close to the inlet. The marina is less than 5 miles to the inlet and the Atlantic Ocean.

Both Mark and I had an incident on today's run. We both ran out of the channel and ran aground; the worst part is we did it in two separate places. It is very easy to do on the Intracoastal Waterway (ICW). In places the ICW gets very narrow, and if you stray out of the channel by just a few feet you can (and will) run aground. I was not paying close enough attention, and before I knew it the cross wind had me out of the channel. Fortunately as soon as my shallow water alarm sounded, I pulled back the throttle and put the boat in neutral, and steered back towards deeper water. I felt the bottom hit, but I had enough momentum to continue drift back to deeper water. Mark was going around a slight bend it the river, and took the bend a little wider than the channel. He was able to back out and into deeper water. He was not as lucky as we were, he did ding his props. Mark does carry a spare set of props, and was able to arrange for a diver to change the props while we were at Belhaven. The diver also replaced the zinc's (Sacrificial anodes that protect the boat from corrosion). The diver also inspected the entire bottom of the boat, and videotaped it as well. Over all I think the bottom looks pretty good. (Check out the video's on the video tab)

After the diver finished with both of our boats, we both launched our dinghy's and went exploring. The first place we went to was the Rachel Carson Nature Preserve. It is a small island directly across from the marina. It is home to 33 wild horses. We saw lots of horse manure, but no horses. (I did see some from the dock, so we knew they were there) We walked for about a mile, both on and off the trail but we could not find them. We later found out, when it is as hot as is was, the head to the ocean side of the island where the breeze is. After our walk, we took the dingy's to the other side of Beaufort where there is another marina. There were other loopers there but they were not on their boats. It was choppy and we did get splashed a lot but it was good to run the dinghy's, and it was something to do.

Thursday we started our day by borrowing one of the four courtesy cars for a run to the grocery store. You can only have the car for one hour so we had to be quick. After our grocery run we walked through town, and went to the North Carolina Maritime Museum. It is a free museum, that focuses on Black Beard and his ship the Queen Anne's Revenge. It is the official repository for the artifacts from the ship which was discovered near Beaufort's Inlet in 1996. After the museum we went to dinner at "The Dock House". The main reason we went there, is we go 4 tokens for beers, and a coupon for 10% off our bill. It was not worth the free drinks or 10% discount! The food was mediocre and the service not much better.

Overall Beaufort is a nice town, with lots to see and do within walking distance of the docks.

Our next stop is Oriental NC, for a one night stop. We also have to look at our travel plans for the next week. There are two storms heading our way, one from the north and one from the south. We need to see if they will impact our plans, and if so, what changes do we need to make.