Three Stay Over Days in Beaufort NC

—Blogpost written by Bob

First Stay Over Day in Beaufort NC

Like yesterday, it started to rain (heavily) at 3 AM on Wednesday, May 20.  At 6:45 AM when I got up it was not raining but the sky was completely overcast. The weather forecast on Weather Underground continued to show rain in the forecast for today (and tomorrow). 

A screen capture from WINDY
this morning.

High winds (greater than 20 knots) are expected later today and all day tomorrow. Since we were planning to transit the Neuse River (which is a fairly big body of water) tomorrow, it sounds best if we cancel those plans and wait it out here in Beaufort NC another day. (I need to revise our travel plan again!) The heavy rain returned momentarily after eight in the morning with a burst of wind.  (It rained on and off all during the day, heavy at times.  We were glad that we weren’t out on the water today.)

It has been 5 days since we had a hot shower—so, hot showers were on the top of our agenda this morning and they did not disappoint!  (I’m surprised that I wasn’t smelling like a dead fish this morning.)

s/v Rainy Days sits in her slip
with dinghy tied to stern
at Beaufort Docks. It
was a dreary day!

There were very few boats in Beaufort Docks compared to other seasons we've stayed here--lots of empty slips!  The dock guys think that they will see an uptick in dockage later this month and into June.  (I hope they are right about this.)

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Using the marina’s loaner car, we picked up a few things at the local Food Lion that we missed during our last provisioning. It was interesting to note that Food Lion adopted Publix’s one-way grocery isles, and sanitized grocery card handles, but none of the store personnel wore face masks (while most of the shoppers did).

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We had a delicious take out lunch from Beaufort Grocery Company which was big enough to last for both meals of the day.  We spent a lot of time reading and I finished the biography of FDR.

Second Stay Over Day in Beaufort NC

Thursday, May 21, was our second stay over day (our third night) at Beaufort Docks in Beaufort NC. The high winds kept me awake a big portion of last night--I think our burgee was flapping against one of the shrouds on the port side and making quite a racket.

In the morning the strong wind continued and it was accompanied by light rain and an overcast sky.  According to the weather forecast, tomorrow looks like more of the same—so, we will be staying here yet another night. After that, the weather should be clear enough (and for long enough) to make it to Baltimore.  A thunderstorm rolled through the area between 9:30 and 10 AM and the rain became heavier.

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We are considering changing out the black sliding doors on the cabinets in the salon to a mirrored acrylic sheet this summer.  The main purpose is to brighten up the boat's interior.

The black sliders in the main salon
make the boat seem too
dark--we would like
to lighten it up.

Many years ago, I changed all the other sliders (in the head and the galley) to teak which I made in my home workshop.  

We are considering three different colors of mirrored acrylic sheet: rose gold, gold, and clear.  Clear acrylic sheet (which I currently favor) would be just like a mirror with a tint.  I have sent an email requesting samples of the three colors.  This effort is to get a jump on some of my summer projects.  (Later I got a return email that they have discontinued sending samples while their COVID-19 demands are in full swing.  We pretty mush decided on a clear mirror finish anyway.)

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I ordered a couple items (two replacement stanchions and two replacement click-clack canisters) to support some of my summer projects. 

We walked up to the marina office to add another day to our stay.  By the time we got back my pants were completely wet—all the rain repelled by my jacket ended up on my pants. It was unbelievably wet outside—I think this was the worst day (in terms of rain) we’ve had so far.  It was even wet inside our enclosed cockpit--usually it’s dry inside but we haven’t waterproofed the relatively new fabric yet.

After spending the remainder of the afternoon reading, we ordered take out pizza from Black Sheep Restaurant (nearby the marina) for dinner and then watched some TV before retiring for the night.

Third Stay Over Day in Beaufort NC

It rained "cats and dogs" again last night!  This morning, Friday, May 22, the sky was still overcast and it was raining lightly but the weather forecast looked better, still a 50% chance of rain but an expected accumulation of only 0.07 inches.  (I would guess we already got more than that!)

At mid-morning, the sun came out, slowly it peaked through the cloud cover, but it was out to stay...ahhhh.

s/v Mia Cara is a 126-foot yacht
that has a 26-foot beam.  She
is flagged in Jamaica and
has a crew of six. She
was docked in
Beaufort NC.

Front Street in Beaufort NC
during the pandemic.

We walked around town a bit and did some shopping.  Social distancing and face masks were common.  In fact, most of the shops had six foot distances marked with tape on the floors.  We bought some new (plastic) cocktail glasses on our little shopping excursion.

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Tomorrow we head northward on the ICW--stay tuned!


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