Offshore to Beaufort, NC
Sunday 2 May 2021
Today was excellent. I woke a few minutes before the alarm went off at 5.30 am and we got up to a beautiful dawn. After a quick cup of coffee we pulled up anchor, raised the mainsail and motored out of the Masonboro Inlet. In ten minutes we were clear of the coastal shoals and turned north-east towards Beaufort, just over 60 nautical miles away. The winds were about 8 or 9 knots off our starboard quarter (about 140o), just a tad light to sail but strong enough that the mainsail didn’t flop from side to side. We continued to motor-sail throughout the morning with fairly calm seas and lots of sunshine. Around mid-morning, about 20 miles out of Wrightsville beach, we picked up a phone call from Tasha, which was amazing as we were more than 10 miles offshore by that point. It was great to hang out in the cockpit and chat with her. By mid-day the winds had started to fill in a little and we cut the engine and sailed the rest of the way to the Beaufort inlet, making 5-6 knots on a broad reach with 11-15 knots of breeze. It was just fabulous sailing. The last couple of miles we put the engine back on and proceeded dead down wind into a stiff ebb current. The wind over tide effect coupled with the wake from lots of powerboats conspired to create a washing machine like effect until we had cleared the inlet and the main shipping channel. Anchoring was fun! We are in Taylor Creek, a channel that parallels the Beaufort waterfront. You can anchor on the opposite side adjacent to a barrier island, but you need to get out of the channel and it’s really shallow. It took us two attempts to anchor before we felt confident we were out of the channel and we saw 6.3 feet depth at dead low shortly after our arrival at 5.30 pm. The only negative is that we have an irritating rattle in the boat that we cannot pin down. We have looked at every line that goes up the mast and can’t find the cause – but you can hear it very clearly down below. It’s either coming from outside and out boat is just amplifying the sound or possibly our wind instrument at the top of the mast has developed a rattle. We’ll try and figure it out tomorrow.
Mike
34 42.869 N, 76 39.882 W
Loved the video, full screen. I felt like I was out there with you!
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