Beaufort, NC to Portsmouth, Va

Our jog from Beaufort to Belhaven was wet and rainy, but otherwise uneventful.

While we were browsing in the commercial fishing supply store, Lisa made the mistake of telling the salesman how much we liked Belhaven. That's when we learned that the town had voted the mayor out of office 3 times before he got the idea that he had been fired. He had been mayor for 28 years. After briefing us on the dirty deeds of several other city officials, the salesman looked Lisa in the eye and asked "so what is it about Belhaven that you like?" One thing we don't like is that our cell phone doesn't work there.

We waited for favorable weather for our next leg. It involved 20 something miles on the exposed Alligator River and then crossing the Albermarle Sound. While transiting the Pungo River/Alligator River Canal we spotted a black bear eating berries not too far from the water. He scurried off when we passed him. A couple of miles later we saw some deer on the opposite shore. This from a crew who did not spot a single alligator from Texas all the way to Florida. We anchored at mile 59 on the ICW in the middle of 3000 crab pots.

Our final day on the ICW involved a healthy supply of restricted bridges and 1 lock. All went very smoothly. Our anchor was up at 5:35 am and we spent most of the day in the vicinity of a 2 pack tow that had anchored across from us at mile 59. He ended up in the lock with us and about 6 other boats. He took up the whole north side of the lock.

We made it to our anchorage near Hospital Point in Portsmouth/Norfolk by early afternoon, but it took 2 tries to get the anchor set. It is nice to be done with the ICW for a while. There is a 5 mph speed limit in the ship channel here, so there are virtually no wakes even though there is a ton of traffic. Because of all the ship traffic and ship yards it is quite noisy here, so if you are trying to get away for a weekend it may not be your first choice, but we get plenty of time in secluded anchorages so the noise doesn't bother us much.

Cruise ships dock right across the water from where we are at. Patrol boats keep a constant guard. One patrol boat stopped about 15 pleasure boats in a 2 hour span when we first arrived.

We are also right next to the turning basin. It is amazing watching these monsters turn 180 degrees on a dime.


Using his thrusters (maybe pods) to spin around.


After about 15 minutes, he completes his turn and heads out to sea. The next cruise ship was from the Carnival fleet and was much newer and bigger--but you can only take so many pictures of cruise ships.


German restaurant in Portsmouth.  You would think of all people, the Germans would know how to spell beer.

Monday morning we had a nice chat with a World War II veteran while we were waiting for the Memorial Day Parade to start. It is always interesting listening to a WW II vet talk--we listen with reverence and great gratitude. A big THANK YOU to ALL our veterans (and their families) who gave their lives for this incredible country. We do not take you for granted.


After the parade, we took the ferry across the river to Norfolk. We visited the Naval museum and toured the USS Wisconsin. It served in WW II and retired after the Gulf War.


Me thinks his anchor chain is larger than our anchor chain. The ugly foot is in a size 13 flip flop.

Fernandina to Beaufort, NC

We returned to the dinghy dock after getting propane and groceries only to find all the dinghies stuck in the mud. We have spent a fair amount of time in Fernandina and have never seen the dinghy dock go aground before. This was a new moon low tide, so we joined another stranded couple for some drinks as we waited for the tide to come up some.

The following morning we were off the mooring shortly after 6 and headed to Charleston, SC. It was a wonderful sail for most of the morning before the wind decided to die down. The rest of the trip ended up being a motor sail. We made good time and arrived at the Charleston Ship Channel earlier than I had anticipated, so we decided to keep going and enter the Winyah Bay Inlet at Georgetown, SC.

We arrived at the inlet just in time to take the full brunt of an ebb tide--and it's a loooong inlet. We fought the current all the way to Thoroughfare Creek which is at about mile marker 390 on the ICW. One thing we learned is you need at least 2 crew to enter or exit this inlet in mid May. One to drive the boat and one to kill flies to protect the helmsman.

When we arrived at Thoroughfare Creek we felt way out of place. It was late Sunday afternoon and the creek was full of speed boats with all their water toys. They all stared at us like we were aliens--but then they all went home and it turned out to be a great anchorage. Just don't plan on staying there over a weekend.

Skipper Bob suggested using a trip line on the anchor. I don't like trip lines for several reasons, but we decided to use one in case the anchor got stuck on a submerged log. That evening, 2 ladies in a speedboat thought they found a free fender and they were bound and determined to take it home. When we informed them the fender was ours and attached to our anchor they weren't inclined to believe us and they were not too happy--but they did leave it alone and moved on.


Thouroughfare Creek is quite beautiful.

Lisa had a bit too much time on her hands and after a rereading Skipper Bob's, decided we were not going to do this next section of the ICW. Soooo, we backtracked the 27 nautical miles to the Winyah Bay Inlet--this time with a fair tide, and we killed more flies.

We had a small window to get to Beaufort before the wind would turn NE (on our nose) for several days. So long as we got to Beaufort before late pm the following day all would be well.

It was another beautiful day and we were making great time. Some thunderstorms started to appear when we approached Cape Fear and Frying Pan Shoals around 10 pm. We were able to alter course to avoid one cell, then we had to slow way down to let another cell pass in front of us. So far so good. Later that night the wind and waves prematurely clocked NE right on our nose and increased to 15 - 20 knots. Needless to say, from then on it was a miserable night. And slow.

Last trip north we stopped at Morehead City Yacht Haven in--you guessed it--Morehead City. It is a great marina with nice facilities, but there is not much within walking distance. This time we decided to check out Beaufort.

Plan A was to try and anchor in front of the town docks and plan B was to check into the marina if the anchorage was as bad as the guide books say it is. Well, we chose plan B and checked in at Beaufort Town Docks. The anchorage was very congested, with half the boats anchored in the channel.

The marina has very nice docks but that's about it. The restrooms and showers are serviceable, but sort of campgroundish. For 2.25/ft + 12.50 electric per night, we would expect a little better. But the people are very nice and the dock hands are superb.

This is the first time we have been plugged in to electricity in over a year. How nice to be able to run our air conditioner! We thought about running our vacuum cleaner all night just because we could.


Wooden boat shop.


Wooden boats from the wooden boat shop in the water.


The marina has loaner cars they let you use for an hour at a time to run to the grocery store. We took advantage of that and stocked up with heavy stuff. Then I made the mistake of opening the trunk to put the groceries in. The problem was, it wouldn't shut (it had been backed into in a previous life), so I had to tie it almost shut with a grocery bag.


Docked next to some much bigger friends.

We have enjoyed our stay here, and really enjoyed being tied to a real dock for a couple of days.

Lake Worth to Fernandina

We decided to leave our boat on a mooring in Stuart, Florida while we visited Mom and Carol. The mooring field is run by a municipal marina with very reasonable rates. It's a fairly new facility located about 8 miles off the ICW on the way to Lake Okeechobee. There are many opening bridges between Lake Worth and Stuart, and most of them are restricted, only opening at set times. We were delayed at one bridge which was being worked on, but the rest of the day went smoothly.

Carol and Mom picked us up and we had a great 2 week visit with them. Now Carol and Mom can get some rest!

When we returned to the mooring field, we were able to get some projects done. I got all 3 alternator belts changed, changed the impeller on the raw water pump, and stripped and varnished the exterior teak. We have lots of teak inside, but thankfully not too much outside. Old Chinese proverb--- "teak inside good, teak outside bad". When we got the boat it came with Cetol on the outside teak. Some people like Cetol, but we don't. It looks so so right after it is put on, but eventually it looks like brown paint. Since I'm basically lazy, we decided to live with it until it needed to be redone, then we would strip it and varnish it. The day arrived when it needed to be redone, so now it is varnished.

After a year and a half sans radio, we decided it was time to install a stereo, so we were able to get that done as well. This of course involved long bike rides to West Marine for overpriced screws and Home Depot for wood to reinforce where the speakers are hung.

Just to make things interesting, we got a tear in the hypalon on our dinghy. The marina has a great dinghy dock, but you have maneuver between some sharp rocks and the end of the dinghy dock to get to where you tie up. It was dark and there was a dinghy tied up on the end that I had to get around. It was low tide which made it narrower and I slid on top of a submerged rock and then heard the dreaded hiss. It was one of those how could I be so stupid moments. We had been in and out of there a hundred times. But no do overs. An expensive mistake. We limped back to the mother ship (the dinghy has 3 separate air chambers, so we still had 2 full of air). We were able to get it fixed by a dinghy shop--they put a patch on the inside and on the outside and it looks great.

While at the marina, we met Rusty Hightower who works for Massey selling Hunters and Island Packets. In 2001 he sold us a Catalina 36 when we were on Lake Texoma. Small world. Yep, he tried to sell us a Hunter.

It was time to head north so that our insurance would remain valid. The first day we did 83 miles from Stuart to a bit past Melbourne. After leaving Stuart we took the St. Lucie River through Hookers Cove and then directly through Hell Gate. I did not make up the names nor put them in that order.

We were up early again the following morning, and made good another 83 miles to Daytona. Along the way we saw a very large dead turtle. On behalf of the Kinder and Gentler One, I would like to apologize to France for this uniquely American transgression.

The following day took us 53 miles to St. Augustine. This time through, we stayed in the main anchorage. There is a strong current here and the boats do funny things at anchor. Most of the boats were behaving, but the full keeled boats were running around putting their ground tackle to the test.


6:15 am in the St. Augustine anchorage.  A young teenage couple with a dog appeared to be living on this boat.

It was 63 miles to Fernandina. At some point we were attacked by horse flies. This kept Lisa entertained for a while.


This is the result of about 45 minutes of Lisa's day. I'm so proud. When she reached her limit, we threw the rest overboard so we wouldn't get fined. Horse fly stir fry anyone?


As we neared the St. Johns River, the military's presence became pronounced.

Other than the fly hunt, the day was uneventful until we passed the St. Johns River. From there on it got hairy. We arrived an hour or so before low tide (7 foot range) one day before the new moon. This water is not like the Keys or Bahamas. You read the chart and the rest is Braille, because you certainly can't see through it. We bumped the bottom as we left the St. Johns River to rejoin the ICW on the other side, but made it through OK. After that we had several close calls but were able to find the deeper water. About 2 and 1/2 miles before arriving a Fernandina we finally ran aground. In trying to get free, I expertly maneuvered us harder aground. It was almost dead low tide, so we decided to wait for the tide to come in and float us off. It wasn't 2 minutes later when Tow Boat Us showed up. He had a spy watching that section for potential business (we were his 3rd of the afternoon at that same spot). We have tow boat insurance with Boat US, so we let him pull us to deeper water. If we had to pay for it we would have read a book and waited for the tide to fill in. After we were free, we barely made it through the next 100 yards, but then it was deep water the rest of the way.

Now we are fueled up and on a mooring. I hope to change oil, transmission fluid and the primary fuel filter tomorrow. We also need to get propane. Then the plan is to leave Saturday to go offshore to Charleston, South Carolina.