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We finally get underway from the Beaufort Docks about 1000. Maintenance operations were still going on at the Beaufort Bridge so we back tracked to the main channel to Morehead City and continued homeward.
I once overheard a fellow cruiser ask, “Will we ever get a favorable current?” Well today wasn’t the day either. The journey to the “non-tidal” zone was a battle today. As we traversed Core Creek and Adams Creek Canal the current was rushing towards the Beaufort Inlet. At one point our speed was down to less than 4 mph. Even the wind direction would not allow us to motor sail and assist our speed.
When we reached the Neuse River, it was apparent we were not going much further today. The wind was blowing 15+ from the NE and waves were 2-3 feet. A lumpy, not so pleasant Neuse awaited. So much for the “weather guessers” prediction of SW breezes. We motor jibbed across and as northward as possible. Then we turned into the wind and motored on to the entrance of Broad Creek. We entered the creek and headed to R4 and the anchorage there.
The water level in the anchorage seemed more shallow than in our previous visits. We were somewhat exposed to the NE wind, but conditions were tolerable. There were two shallow draft powerboats anchored further in and later, another sailboat anchored near us.
At dusk the wind switched directions and moved to the SW. This was not good as it moves water out of the creek and the water levels drop. We had anchored in 6.5’ of water which slowly became 5’ as the evening progressed.
Location: Broad Creek, North of Oriental, NC - MM 174
Distance Traveled: 26 mi
Around 0900 we started moving across the water to the town of Beaufort. We have always heard a lot of positive info from other cruisers about the town. To avoid the Beaufort bascule bridge, which was undergoing some maintenance, we took the main channel headed toward the inlet, then rounded Radio Island and headed back north into Beaufort.
The anchorage was extremely crowded so we took a slip at the Beaufort Docks. The floating docks and dock side help made docking easy. After a little cleanup, we took a walking tour of the town.
Front street has lots of restaurants and shops which liberated some of our wallet contents. The real interesting part of town starts in the block behind the “getcha” zone. There we found lots of historic homes, a graveyard, a couple of working artists’ studios and a maritime museum.
By mid-afternoon we had pretty much seen it all so we walked back to Front Street and had a late lunch at the Dock House Restaurant. It was a pleasant experience dining al fresco with views of the harbor, docks, and wild horses on the island across the harbor.
We did have a couple of negative experiences with the dock management. We requested a pump out as we were arriving and were informed the pump out dock was blocked by large motor vessel. They expected the boat to leave later. It didn’t leave and they let them continue to block the pump out service until the next morning. We were not the only customers denied pump out services. The other issue involved getting fuel. The advertised “fuel at your slip” was not to be had and required moving to yet another dock for fuel service. Most marinas have the pump out and fuel at the same dock.
As we were clearing our slip the next morning, the motor vessel finally moved off the pump out dock so we slipped in real quick, got the pump out and then moved over to the fuel dock to fill up.
Location: Beaufort Docks, Beaufort, NC - MM 200
Distance Traveled: 4 mi
