A long motor-sail to Beaufort, NC … Wed 20th June 2018

A long motor-sail to Beaufort, NC   …   Wed 20^th June 2018

I’ll try and keep this brief – there’s only so much wit and ready repartee that anyone can stand in one week! Gloria’s right (naturally), it’s either much hotter and more humid than when we left two weeks ago or we’ve become weenies in the meantime. From Wrightsville Beach to Beaufort is close to 70 nautical miles with no safe coastal inlets in between. We wanted to get an early start so that we would arrive in daylight, but also to make the most of the cool morning. We misjudged it a bit and were up at 4.15 am and ready to go thirty minutes later, except that it was still pitch black! I guess it really makes a difference how far east/west you are in the time zone, it would have been light in Boston at that time. Anyway we got underway half an hour later, quickly raised the mainsail and motored out of Masonboro inlet. There was very little wind all day and we ended up motor – (sailing) the entire distance. The seas were pretty flat with only a small swell and the journey passed quickly. The sunrise was beautiful as we headed directly into it. Later we were surprised to see some flying fish – (we didn’t think they came this far north) – and delighted to see dolphins. We also caught a decent fish on our trolled hand-line. We are fairly certain based on our fish identification charts that it was a king mackerel, about three feet long, maybe 5 or 6 pounds. Anyway we kept it and ate half of it for dinner this evening, simply pan fried in garlic butter and served with pasta, tomato pesto and sautéed zucchini, and it was excellent. We gave the other half to a guy on the boat next to ours. We Arrived at Beaufort inlet just as thunder-storm was building to the northwest, but it passed us by and we were able to anchor in Taylor Creek off the Beaufort waterfront. There is very little swinging room and I don’t exaggerate when I say there is less than 20 feet from our stern to a houseboat behind us. There is strong reversing current in the anchorage so let’s hope our anchor doesn’t drag!

Mike

Prior to sunset en-route from Wrightsville Beach to Beaufort

It was an amazing sunrise 

Rising sun on the bow

Just sun, sea and sky

A double exposure with the second shot of the sun far out of focus