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Published: October 26th 2007
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We arrived in Beaufort last night in the rain, and are currently anchored off Town Creek Marina.
After returning home to celebrate the birth of our first granddaughter Ella, we drove our mini van, packed with more “stuff” back to Great Bridge. We havn”t quite figured out yet how we’re going to move the mini van around. This was very good, safe place to leave the boat, with nice people, and a fantastic view of all the boats heading south. Almost all boats choose to go in the intercoastal waterway during this stretch, as offshore, the weather conditions off Cape Hatteras have a reputation of being very bad, with lots of storms and high winds. The intercoastal waterway has two options here, both leading to Albermarle Sound. The dismal swamp is the one many sailboats choose, as it has less big powerboat traffic, and is very scenic. As Great Bridge is already on route to the alternate route, and we had passed through the lock, we chose to go the other route, through Coinjock.
After being off the boat for a while it took a bit to get, back into the boat routine, especially after spending time with our
Great Bridge Virginia
This is where we left the boat while we went back to meet Ella. family, and our new granddaughter. It was really hard to leave Ella! Babies are truly a miracle and Ella is certainly special. We are lucky to have access to wifi and cell. This way we stay in touch which helps.
Our first day we passed all the good anchorages early, and decided to cross Albermarle Sound in the afternoon as conditions were favourable to cross. The Sounds of North Carolina are tricky, as they are fairly large, shallow bodies of water and can get quite nasty when the wind blows. Our crossing was great, we had a nice sail, and entered Allligator River, right at dusk. They had moved the channel markers, (we hear that’s not uncommon here), so that caused a bit of stress, as it was getting dark. We did get through them and stayed at the Alligator Bridge Marina, just a little further on. It was a very inexpensive marina, in the middle of nowhere, but nice people, and welcomed at the end of a long day.
The next day, we went on to Belhaven. Belhaven is a pretty southern town, with some beautiful old colonial style houses just off of the Pamlico River Sound.
We had spent time here on our previous trip south, and it was a nice memory to return. In Belhaven the weather started deteriorating, with frequent rain showers and higher winds. With a forecast of much of the same weather, we left Belhaven , headed towards Oriental NC. Oriental is the sailing capital of North Carolina, and we had met people from Oriental that had invited us to stay at their dock in Oriental. When we reached the open Pamlico Sound the wind had really increased so we turned around and tied up to a shrimp boat dock we had just passed.
Now the shrimp dock was a real experience! We were able to buy fresh, huge shrimp here for $4.00 a pound caught earlier that day, plus we bought some fresh fish. The shrimpers , are quite the characters, and Sharon, (with her outgoing attitude) met a couple of the finest. A shrimper named “Stir Fry” gave her his secret family recipe for shrimp and Gravy, and another shrimper “Rookie” gave some fantastic batter for the shrimp and fish. Needless to say we had a first class shrimp, and fish dinner that night. We also got to meet
some pretty interesting shrimp fisherman, and heard all about shrimping. The shrimpers, and others that we’ve met in North Carolina are really great, we enjoy their cool accent, and good nature. We did encounter some major mosquitos at the shrimp dock, and we think there are still lots of them hiding in our boat.
The next morning (yesterday) we got up and decided to get across Pamilico Sound before the wind got too strong. Just as we were getting ready to leave another boat that was already in the sound called us and said it was really rough in the sound. At the same time we noticed that no water was coming out our exhaust. (A bad thing as the motor is cooled by water). Eventually we figured out our impellor had failed (had just had it replaced in Great Bridge) . So…. We figured out how to change the impellor, water started coming out and we left for Beaufort. We decided to miss Oriental and go right to Beaufort as again the sound was good for traveling.
So here we are in Beaufort. This is where many boats head again offshore, and we’d like to do that.
However the weather doesn’t look like it will co-operate, anytime soon, with a strong cold front coming through, and lingering rainy windy weather. The other option is to head down the intercoastal waterway, but the downside is that there is lots of powerboat traffic, and the waterway is not very deep in places, so it’s always a stress not to touch bottom. We’ll watch for a day or so, and that may give some friends a chance to catch up. If we don’t go offshore here, we have another chance at Cape Fear River. We’ll see.
That’s it for now, we’re enjoying having Wifi and cell service here in Beaufort, plus it’s a very nice place, especially if the sun comes out. We’ve been listening to lots of country music stations down here. It’s about the only choice if you want to listen to the radio. Maybe I’ll learn some of the songs. Hope all is well with everyone.
Sharon and Doug
Aboard SV About Time
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