Beaufort to Southport

—Blogpost written by Bob

Beaufort to Mile Hammock Bay

We turned our clocks back last night due to the end of daylight savings time. We still got up with the rising sun only we departed a little later than usual since we decided to take our last hot shower in a couple days and it took some extra time gathering up our shore power cord and all our dock lines (at least compared to an anchorage or mooring buoy).

We (reluctantly) left our slip at Beaufort Docks at 7:45 AM on November 3, 2019.  We got back on the ICW heading further south and into the 19-mile long channel in Bogue Sound, ending at Bogue Inlet.  Most of the day was spent in narrow channels within a wider body of water behind some of North Carolina’s barrier islands south of the Outer Banks. 

The bridge above is Cedar Point Highway Bridge
and is located just north of Swansboro.

There was some serious shoaling between R10 and R12 but the shoaling was well marked with temporary red buoys. We experienced some depths as shallow as 6.5 feet in spots.

Bogue Sound is the long narrow body of water behind
the barrier islands.  Beaufort is on the right
and Swansboro is on the left.  Today,
we mostly traveled east to west.

During the trip today Lola found a cool spot under the helm seat.  Bunky, a prior Maine Coon, used to love to sleep in this spot too.

Lola's new favorite spot, even though
she barely fits into the space.

We arrived at our anchorage for the night, Mile Hammock Bay, at 2 PM.  We've anchored here many times before.

We've traveled a little over 40 miles today.  Only one bridge had to open for us, the Onslow Beach Swing Bridge near the end of our travel day.

Dusk in Mile Hammock Bay, NC.

Mile Hammock Bay to Wrightsville Beach

We weighed anchor in Mile Hammock Bay at 8 AM on Monday, November 4, 2019, which was at a little after low tide (but rising) at the nearby New River Inlet. The New River Inlet has always been problematic for us. We’ve gone aground or touched bottom nearly every time we’ve passed through. This season, I had some new waypoints as an assist plus the path was well marked with floating buoys this time around. The only complication we had was an approaching shrimp boat with both booms down! We got through with experiencing only 6.5 feet at only one spot—no groundings!  (Later in the day I improved our waypoints for this area so that it will be even easier next Spring when we return.)

This pink house on an island always intrigues me.
It is located near MM 250 or near G19.

The sun was out in full force and it got warm inside our cockpit enclosure despite having the front window open. We stripped down to shorts and summer t-shirts.

We had two bridges that had to open for us today—the Figure Eight Island Swing Bridge and the Wrightsville Beach Bascule Bridge.

The Figure Eight Island Swing Bridge was one
of two bridges that had to open for us today.

We anchored at 2:30 PM in 25 feet of water in the bay on the north side of Wrightsville Beach. (Wrightsville Beach is on a barrier island that runs East to West and the ocean is on the South side.) There were 15 others boats anchored in this bay with us.

The wind was blowing 15 knots out of the Northeast. We had 125 feet of anchor chain out (5 to 1 scope, which is a lot for chain.) The wind is expected to die down this evening, so, I simply used the chain stopper to lock the anchor chain. (If the wind doesn’t die down, I’ll add a nylon bridle—I used the bridle one time on this trip already—in St. Michaels.)

Today we traveled 39 statute miles in 6.5 hours. Tomorrow we have a short trip to Southport...

Wrightsville Beach to Southport

We raised anchor in Wrightsville Beach at 7 AM on Tuesday, November 5, 2019. The sky was overcast and it had rained lightly. The weather was warm—in the high 60’s.

A few boats remained in our Wrightsville Beach
anchorage when we departed.

We had a slight grounding (our first of this season) leaving through the channel between the anchorage and the ICW. It was just a “bump” but we kept moving slowly and, of course, our depth alarm was having fits. It was very close to low tide. Later I put a danger waypoint (red circle) on the spot where we grounded so that we avoid it next time.

Despite bucking a tidal current most of the morning, we made it to Southport Marina by 11 AM.  We immediately got diesel fuel (11 gallons) at the marina and then docked for the duration of our stay (2 nights).

s/v Rainy Days in Southport Marina's
slip #C-3 just before the rain.

A workboat at a rickety pier
in Southport NC

It started to rain about 12:30 PM, just after our delicious lunch at Fishy Fishy Cafe, and continued the remainder of the day.

A Stay Over Day in Southport

We were greeted by the sun this morning!  This was a planned stay over day in Southport, one of our favorite spots along the ICW.

The morning was sunny 
and warm (70's)!

We took advantage of the beautiful weather in Southport and rode about 5 miles on our new folding bikes.  We had a great Italian meal for lunch at Bambini's!

How fitting to end a blogpost with
a photo of a sunset?

Tomorrow we will continue our trek south with some major obstacles right at the start...stay tuned!

Thanks for following our blog!