Belhaven to Beaufort NC - 2018

Nov 12 thru Nov 13

--Blogpost written by Bob

Belhaven to Adams Creek (Nov 12)

As I got up in the morning clouds were clearing from the sky and it was a chilly 46 degrees F outside. We had to wait for a boat behind us on the long dock to leave before we could attempt to back out. (Sailboats aren’t designed for ease of backing up!) After checking the latest weather report (rain is expected late in the day, through the night, and into tomorrow morning) we got underway—the time was 7:30 AM. We ended up doing a 3-point turn (with the dinghy attached to our bow) within the 60-foot wide channel, rather than backing all the way out of the marina.

It was nice and warm inside our cockpit enclosure
as we motored down the Pungo River, across
the Pamlico River, and into Goose Creek.

We anchored in Goose Creek in two previous seasons, the positions of each anchorage shown on our electronic chart with a gray anchor symbol.

This was Lola’s watch. You can see the green
ICW day mark in the background
of this photo.

There were four shrimp boats docked at R.E.Mayo
Seafood Company when we came
by about 10:45 AM.

After motoring through Goose Creek and the man-made canal between Goose Creek and Bay River, we entered Bay River and then traveled about 20 miles down the Neuse River. The boat rolled from large wind-created swells slamming into our port stern while in the wide expanse of the Neuse River. As we got further down the Neuse River, the waves were much less of an issue. The clouds started to roll in about 1 PM.

Before we entered Adams Creek, we called Beaufort Docks about a slip for tomorrow (while we had momentary cell phone coverage). They felt that with the upcoming bad weather a lot of boats would stay in Beaufort tomorrow night. We’ll call again in the morning but it’s possible we’ll just stay anchored tomorrow and go into Beaufort on Wednesday. 

We anchored in Adams Creek (near MM 188) at 2:45 PM. We traveled approximately 53 statute miles today in 7-1/4 hours (for an average speed of 7.3 miles per hour). We didn’t have any bridges that had to open for us today nor any other delays that usually negatively impact on our speed.

We anchored approximately 660 feet from the center of the ICW across from red daymark #10 in 9 feet of water. We tried to go into Cedar Creek but we were spooked by the shallow water shown on the electronic chart and the 7-foot depths we quickly encountered. Later, we watched another (larger) sailboat go into this creek. We called them on the VHF and they told us there was plenty of room with 7 feet of water (and more in some spots)—they drew 6 feet. We’ll keep this in mind for our return trip north.

The rain started shortly after we anchored. We watched four or five dolphins swimming in Adams Creek a couple hundred feet from our boat.  

We didn’t have any cell phone service from our anchorage—I think we’re going to change cell phone carriers because accurate up-to-date coastal weather forecasts are not optional for ICW travel in my opinion.

Adams Creek to Beaufort (Nov 13)

It continued to rain off and on through the night. We were both woken about 4 AM with a tornado warning (until 5 AM) on Maggie’s cell phone (which was strange because we still had no cell phone service). The wind got kind of spooky (racing through our standing rigging) and the boat turned around and rocked a little. Some lightning strikes were occurring off in the distance. The cats were scared. Then it calmed down a bit shortly after 5 AM like on cue. By 5:30 AM, the rain became heavier and more steady and the wind had died down to 10 knots or so. It was difficult to get a good night’s sleep under these conditions.

I woke up for the day at 6 AM, about 1/2-hour before first light and earlier than I usually wake up. When the sun came up I went into the cockpit to check our position and found that our anchor had dragged 500 feet during the night (despite my setting it with the boat’s power when we anchored)!  Apparently the “soft bottom” indicated on the electronic chart prevented us from holding during the hard blow.  Thankfully, the direction we dragged (parallel to the ICW) didn’t cause any problems except some shallower water. The sky became overcast again by 8 AM.

We weighed anchor at 9:30 after we got confirmation from Beaufort Docks that we had a slip for the night.  It was an easy 18-mile (3 hour) trip.  We arrived at Beaufort Docks at 12:30 PM and it was warm, almost like a September afternoon!

We arrived at Beaufort Docks
at 12:30 PM

The boardwalk at Beaufort Docks is
lined with restaurants and shops.

We will be staying here in Beaufort until Saturday morning when we resume our southerly travels.  Stay tuned...

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