Monday – 9 November
We woke up to rain….lots of rain. We knew it would be a wet day on the water. We left River Dunes Marina in Oriental, NC before 7am and headed toward Beaufort.
Just a sidenote to anyone who thinks boating is a time efficient means of travel along the coast…. from the marina it took us 10 minutes to get to Oriental, NC by car. By sailboat we passed by the town 1.5 hours after we left the marina.
It rained all day so visibility was a challenge…. and today we had to navigate from marker to marker through a curvy narrow channel….this meant Christina with the binoculars and Bob at the wheel with the constant question of “do you see the next marker?”.
In the middle of this process a small pod of dolphins (6?) played in the water near us. No photos this time as we had to focus on finding the next marker.
And then we went through the busy channel of Beaufort where markers from multiple channels converge, and the navigational aids (green on port / red on starboard) reversed for some channels so we weren’t sure which buoys and markers we were supposed to steer toward and keep to which side, add to that a wind that kicked up toward the end and rain that got harder…and oh yes, the tide…. the tide is strong here at Beaufort Docks and we tried to time our arrival for slack water (between tides)….but looking out at the water there was still very strong current – we even saw whitecaps!
Needless to say it was a bit stressful for Bob as he steered. But we got to the slip and safely tied to the dock with no incident. And a beer was in his hand within minutes to help relax.
And still it rains….. hard.
Tomorrow we are scheduled to take off again for Swan Point Marina on our way to Wrightsville Beach, NC, but Thunderstorms are forecast for the morning….so….. who knows?
The dockage fee is quite expensive here (surprisingly) but depending on the weather forecast we may spend another day…. stay tuned….