BELHAVEN TO BEAUFORT AND CAROLINA BEACH

November 14, 2022

Hurricane Nicole has blown through, but the entire mid-Atlantic coast continues to experience brisk wind and sea conditions, so we have been choosing our travel windows with care.

As we reported in our last post, we decided to leave Belhaven on Saturday morning, and the decision turned out to be a good one. We set out for Beaufort NC (we pronounce that Bow-furt, y’all in Nowth Cowolina). (it’s pernounced Bew-furt in Sath Cowalina).

About 7AM, just as we left the Belhaven breakwater, we encountered one of the biggest dolphin pods I have ever seen. Lynn estimates we had 40 animals breaking all around the boat, feeding on baitfish at the mouth of the harbor.

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It is a 65-mile trip to Beaufort; about 5 hours considering no-wake zones, etc. We had very pleasant sea and wind conditions, and we were tucked into Town Creek marina in Beaufort shortly after noon. We had considered staying at Beaufort City Dock – right in the heart of the restaurant action – but we couldn’t get dockage space…not enough people were moving yet. It’s just as well, because the current runs very strong across those docks, and I didn’t really feel like banging the boat up.

Sea conditions worsened as the afternoon progressed, and the boats that arrived after us – mostly sailboats – complained about a very uncomfortable trip!

On Saturday evening, we had a great meal at City Kitchen right at the marina, and got to bed early. No more ants or flies!

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We had originally planned to stay in Beaufort for two days – it’s a cute town. But we had lost 4 days to Nicole, and I wanted to get back on schedule, so that we didn’t have to alter our marina reservations all the way to Key West. So, on Sunday we set off (7AM again) to travel 95 miles to Carolina Beach, completely bypassing an intermediate stop near New River.

When you leave Beaufort heading south, you have to decide if you want to travel inside (ICW) or outside (Atlantic Ocean). Both have their + and -. The ICW is more confining; you have slower traffic to contend with; and you encounter some NoWake zones in populated areas. The ocean has none of those problems, but once you are out there, there are no safe inlets for 80 miles, so if sea conditions are worse than predicted, you are in for a very uncomfortable or even dangerous trip.

Given how unsettled the winds are in Nicole’s aftermath, we chose the ICW. Again, a good decision.

At the beginning of each travel day, one of the first orders of business is to sort out all the sail vs. power. The sailboats start out very early in the day, because they need at least twice as long to cover the same distance. But they will be moving slowly all day, and you must pass them at some point. One of the reasons it’s good to leave early is that it limits the number of sailboats who get started ahead of you. 

Within the first hour we found ourselves in a little “convoy” of power boats. Nirvana, a 45′ power cat, took the lead, followed by Freedom, followed by Peaches II, a gorgeous 45′ Vicem. This stretch of the ICW is basically a straight run down the North Carolina coast, just inside of a long barrier island that stretches for 100 miles. 

It turned out to be a glorious day: bright sunshine, Carolina blue skies, flat seas, and scores of seabirds hunting in the water between the boats. The pictures don’t do it justice since we zoomed in for clarity.

Here’ s Nirvana in the lead – and birds following her:

And Peaches II behind us. More birds – like something from a Hitchcock movie! This shot also gives you a sense of what it looks like when we are barreling down the ICW!

Nirvana did a good job in the lead, slowing cautiously in areas where shoaling was reported, and putting the hammer down when we got an opportunity to run at speed. Nirvana dropped off in Wrightsville, and Peaches asked us to lead the way, because they were concerned about the depths.

We led them as far as Carolina Beach, where we said good-bye and pulled in for fuel and dockage. Unfortunately, before we even left the fuel dock, we heard Peaches calling TowBoatUS for help; they were aground on a sandbar near Southport. What amiserable ending to a brilliant day.

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We’re now holed up at my sister’s place in Carolina Beach: right on the ocean.  Here’s a shot from her deck.

You can’t see it clearly because the dunes block the view of the water’s edge, but the waves are POUNDING the shore today, and there are white caps to the horizon.  I am SO happy we are not traveling today.  In fact, the forecast calls for strong winds today and tomorrow, so we are content to hold up here.  We had always planned to stay here for a few days, so we’ll be back on schedule.  

We’ll leave on Wednesday for Southport.  It’s a little farther down the coast, and it positions us for a long run on Thursday to a place called Wacca Wache.  More on that later.