Wrightsville Beach to Beaufort NC

—Blogpost written by Bob

A Stay Over Day in Wrightsville Beach

While we were expecting a lot of rain today (and maybe tomorrow, as well as the next day), the morning was sunny and cool.  The first thing on our agenda this morning was provisioning--for the last time before reaching Baltimore, about 12 or 13 days from now.  We took the marina's courtesy van to the nearby Harris Teeter grocery store about a mile away.  Most people in the grocery store were wearing face masks but there were a couple die hards (make that "wahoos") without them.  Harris Teeter, like Publix, assigned a person to sanitize the handles of grocery carts.  (Harris Teeter, however, didn't take the route of Publix in making all the grocery isles one way.)

Cheerios and blueberries
for breakfast this
morning.

We got back to the boat and got all the groceries put away by about 10:30 AM.  By then, the wind increased to about 12 to 15 knots out of the northeast--it was pushing us away from the dock.  The cloud cover was getting thicker and the probability of rain was increasing as the day progressed.  It's been a long time since we have experienced much rain!

s/v Rainy Days tied to the face
dock at Seapath Yacht Club
 in Wrightsville Beach NC.

Even though we got a lot done today (provisioning, laundry, and emptying the solids container for our composting toilet), the day was relaxing and didn't require the kind of constant attention as typically expended while traveling on the ICW.

We decided that unless the weather really turns messy overnight that we will continue on with our northerly travel plan tomorrow.

Wrightsville Beach to Mile Hammock Bay

We moved s/v Rainy Days from our slip to the fuel dock so that we could top off our primary fuel tank with diesel fuel and fill our fresh water tanks before proceeding.   The only thing I didn't plan for was the fuel dock's late opening (9 AM)--this meant that we had to wait for the 10 AM opening of the Wrightsville Beach Bridge.  While we waited for the fuel dock to open Maggie bailed all the rainwater (from last night's rain) out of the dinghy.

The Wrightsville Beach Bascule Bridge
opens for us on its 10 AM schedule.

We have one more tricky ocean inlet to navigate today, the New River Inlet, near the end of our day.  I have estimated a 6-hour trip from Wrightsville Beach to the tricky (New River) inlet.  Mid-tide (and rising) at the New River Inlet is 3:05 PM--we should reach the New River Inlet around 4 PM.

The sky was overcast when we departed from Wrightsville Beach but the probability of rain during daylight hours was low for the day.  (However, tomorrow might be a real soaker!)  The overcast sky cleared up by about 11 AM when the sun came out to stay. The outside temperature was in the upper 70’s, which was very comfortable.

Today was very boring except for going aground once, right in the middle of the channel (150 feet south of green buoy 99A near a small inlet from the ocean).  At the time a Corps of Engineer Survey Vessel was nearby and warned us about the extreme shallow spot (just after we had gone aground). I backed out the shallow area but I couldn’t steer the boat—a little later I figured out that the autopilot was still turned on and it would not let me steer. It was a bit confusing at the moment because the shallow depth alarm was going off as well as the autopilot’s off course alarm and I was caught completely off guard by hitting the abrupt shallow spot in the first place.  (Later I added waypoints in the chart plotter so that we won’t hit the sand bar again.)

The tidal current was against us most of the day. It was 2 PM before we saw a boat speed of 6 knots or higher.

The New River Inlet always manages to increase my heart rate as it did today.  I used my previous navigation waypoints exclusively—there is no way I could have managed using the placement of the temporary buoys for navigation. We made it through without any screaming and yelling but I think I now have a few more gray hairs (if that is even possible). That was the last ocean inlet that we have to navigate on this trip!

We anchored in Mile Hammock Bay at 4 PM (right on schedule). Two other sailboats were already in the anchorage—it usually had about 10 or 12 boats every other time we’ve anchored here (another indication that transient boat traffic is way down). We’ve anchored in this little man-made bay on government property (Camp Lejeune) seven times previously. As we sit peacefully in the anchorage we can hear artillery fire within a couple miles. (It just warms the heart of an old Army Reservist—just kidding!)

We had a little trouble getting our anchor to set here because of the soft mud bottom—we’ve experienced this before in this little bay.

We grilled boneless pork ribs on the barbecue grill for dinner with green bean salad as an accompaniment.  As always, our dinners on the boat are superb.

Mile Hammock Bay to Beaufort NC

Wet is the best word to describe today.  It started raining at 3 AM.  While at anchor we contemplated just staying put for the day.  However, making SOME progress in my mind was better than NO progress and this was no place to spend our “extra” day.  So, we raised the anchor at 8 AM and got underway.  We had the cockpit enclosure mostly closed up—we left the back windows rolled up for ventilation.

Maggie bailing out the dinghy
before leaving.

Our visibility started out at 1/2 mile but with our front window full of cascading rain drops it was much less for us. We slowed down to 4.5 knots to suit the conditions we were experiencing.  We were navigating primarily by instruments but used visuals when possible to confirm our position. It was not much fun but we were making progress.

At mid-morning we decided to take a slip at Beaufort NC for the night—we called ahead on our cell phone for a reservation. We were about 30 miles away at that point but we were wet and cold and looked forward to running our onboard heater to dry everything. (I think hot showers were on both our minds too but we didn’t discuss it.)  We even decided to stay two nights since the weather forecast for tomorrow was for more rain and we are still a day ahead of our plan. (So, instead of our planned 57-mile day, we happily settled for a 40-mile day and, then, a day off. I have to revise our travel plan tonight or tomorrow.)

Lola didn’t care for the rain either. Everywhere she liked to sit was wet. When her hair gets wet, it gets curly. Her fluffy tail was all wet and straggly looking. Poor cat!

When we got past Swansboro and Bogue Inlet and the visibility improved significantly, we increased our boat speed as much as we could against the tidal current. We could only do 5.5 knots at that point. Later, in the 17-mile long Bogue Sound, it improved to 6.2 knots and eventually our boat speed reached a high point of 7.1 knots.

We got to Beaufort Docks (MM 204) at 3:15 PM and we got a slip in the basin which we prefer because the incoming and outgoing tides have less of an impact on our steerage when entering/leaving the slip.

Lola didn't cooperate for this pic.
She was still wet from
today's trip.

Stay tuned for our continued trek up the ICW...

Retain healthiness and thanks for following our blog!