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| Sunrise over Masonboro Inlet |
We are now way out on an eastern point of
North Carolina in the town of Beaufort after a beautiful day for sailing 69
miles in the Atlantic Ocean. Yesterday
morning as the sky lightened just prior to sunrise we had the anchor up and were
motoring toward the Masonboro Inlet to head out to sea. We really wanted to arrive in Beaufort before
dark since we were unfamiliar with that inlet and harbor. Conditions were
perfect: the tide was high at the inlet as we motored through it and the sun
was just rising over the breakwater. We turned and headed out the inlet into a
beautiful calm sea with gently rolling waves.
A light wind from the south was just picking up and we raised both
sails. Peter set a northeast course directly for the channel into Beaufort - one
course, one setting of the sails for the whole day. We were on our way
northward again.
The water off shore was a beautiful
blue-green color and quite clear. We
tried to capture it in a photo. If the colors of the flag look right on your
screen, then the color you see for the water should be accurate too. As the
wind increased in the afternoon, we were making great time and we knew we would
arrive hours before sunset. The trip could not have been any better unless a
fish happened to bite on the fishing line Lyn set out… but none did. At one
point we watched an aircraft carrier doing exercises, and a couple of osprey airplane/helicopters
took off from the ship and flew right over us, then returned to the ship and
landed.
Other than that we saw only wide
open blue-green ocean and lots of dolphins.
We arrived in Beaufort at around 17:30 and were tied up at the docks by
17:45, leaving us time to relax and enjoy the rest of the warm, sunny day
before dinner.
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| Osprey airplane/helicopters |
After a good night’s sleep tied up to the
Beaufort Docks, we went out to breakfast at the Boardwalk Café. We borrowed the
marina’s courtesy car to go replenish our supply of perishable foods at the
Beaufort Piggly Wiggly and we were able to get our boat propane tank filled
right next door. After lunch we explored the main streets of Beaufort on foot. We looked around in several shops and then
bought the one thing we never have on board: ice cream cones! Back at the boat
we topped off our fresh water and diesel fuel tanks, so we are now ready to
continue our journey toward Chesapeake Bay.
We’ll leave early Thursday morning.
Are those pelicans heading into the sunrise in formation?
ReplyDeleteI've never seen ospreys that looked like those!
Yes, they are brown pelicans and superb flyers and often fly in formation like that.
DeleteThe wierd shapes on the ends of the wings are the 3-bladed props. You probably know that ospreys have helicopter-like propellers that rotate 90 degrees, depending on whether it wants to fly like a helicopter or an airplane. They are very wierd and noisy. No relation to their namesake birds.
Time for a sailboat, Lon?
ReplyDelete