Woke in a still creek. After oatmeal and coffee we motored out under the bridge and into the Neuse River heading south. Picked up a slight breeze from the north and slowly tacked off the wind toward Adams Creek and the cut beyond. This route is part of the Intracoastal Waterway. The northerly held and we sailed, mostly wing and wing the entire way to Beaufort.
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| Wake up call |
It was a sunny day and the temp climbed, encouraging Noah to take a swim. I threw a line over but as he was towed Annie all but stopped. So Noah had a good swim abeam as we slipped along. The run was nice and uneventful... most of the big yachts slowing as we sailed past.
The ditch opened into Core Creek and then the Newport River before going under the new bridge into Beaufort. When we arrived we tied up at the courtesy dock, refilled a water jug and went through the North Carolina Maritime Museum. Returning to the boat I checked the tides and noticed that it would be slack in the inlet in 30 minutes, 1545. It was still early afternoon so we decided to head for Point Lookout.
The wind had clocked around and was 15 kt ESE with 20 gusts. Once we had made #10 sea buoy double-reefed, we started tacking close hauled into the wind. Seas were running 4-5 feet with easy intervals. After a couple of short tacks east I reckoned that if we were going to make the inlet inside Cape Lookout we needed to tack out far. The first took us offshore 5.5 miles and on the return tack to Shackleford Banks we were half way to our easterly goal. The next set took us to the entrance marker as the sun set at 1945.
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| Shrimper |
After running aground inside and pulling off we anchored close behind a fresh spit that had formed near the entrance. Ate and slept well.
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| Calm behind the spit |
Day total 40.9 nm, 47 sm
