Another
glorious day with southerly winds, bright sunshine and mild temperatures. Yesterday, we decided that we would take our
time, and not push real hard to get to Norfolk.
After looking at the remaining distance of 200 statute miles, it seemed
that about 50 miles per day would be an easy pace, and if the weather was bad
we would stay put. The forecast is
threatening t’storms on Friday, tomorrow, so if that forecast holds we’ll stay
put. We picked out an anchorage about 50
miles north, and checked the tides in Beaufort, NC and decided that we should
be at the Beaufort drawbridge just at 08:00, as it opens only on the hour and ½
hour, but not at 07:30 due to the auto traffic at that hour. So we left the dock at 07:30 with plenty of
time to spare in getting to the bridge only one mile away. At 08:00 we were waiting and it opened promptly
for us and we rode an incoming tide and following wind through the channels in
Beaufort harbor and on into the ICW. We
motor/sailed through Adams Cut for about 5 miles until it opened out into the
Neuse River, then we put up all our sails and shutdown the motor. The silence was heavenly!
Our
speed had been so fast before we started sailing that we decided that we could
sail at speeds as slow as 4 knots without hurting our arrival plans. So we sailed with the wind behind us for 2.4
hours and managed to keep our speed well above 4 knots until the wind just died
out around 13:00. Half an hour later the
wind decided to make up for lost time and started blowing at 20 to 25 kts,
still from the south. By that time our
course was northwest, and the wind was so strong we decided to only put out the
small jib and motor/sail. By 14:00 we
were approaching the anchorage we had selected and the wind was still howling
at 20 to 25 kts. We motored up Long
Creek and were dismayed to see the place just littered with floats marking crap
traps. We found a small space between 4
pots and dropped the anchor. As we settled back on the anchor chain, we found
that we had only 10 feet to spare as we swung past a float just off our
stern. We were anchored before 15:00! So we went below to check the weather
forecast.
 |
| RE Mayo Co. dock in Hobucken, NC |
It
was not good – t’storms starting tonight and continuing into Friday. Wind was supposed to intensify by another 5
knots. We were not feeling very secure
in this anchorage that really had no protection from the wind, but would not
develop large waves unless the wind went to the west. Lyn consulted Skipper Bob (our bible for
navigating the ICW) and found that if we went just 5 more miles up the ICW we
might be able to tie up at a commercial fishermen’s dock in Hobucken. This is in a narrow section of the ICW, so it
is sheltered from wind and waves. She
called the number listed by Skipper Bob and asked if we could tie up there. Even though our arrival time would be 17:30,
they said they would not be there but sure, take some dock space “behind the
fuel tanks”, and we’d settle up in the morning.
So we hoisted our anchor (not easily done in 20 knot winds) and motored
the 5 miles to Hobucken, where we found a nice dock by the fuel tanks and tied
up next to it. Here we plan to ride out
the t’storms and strong winds, so we’ll probably be here another day.
We
are so far away from civilization that Peter’s iPhone is not getting any
signal, so we will not be able to post this day’s entry until we start getting
a signal.
Update
– Friday 12 April 2013
As
predicted the wind is howling outside the boat and the rain started around
08:00 and continued throughout most of the morning. The t’storms were all around us but none of
them came very close to our location, so it was mostly a rain/wind event for
us. Still, we were happy that we decided
to stay at the dock. We had been
awakened late in the night by the sounds of a large barge and tugboat going by
in the ICW, and a few minutes later by the sounds of a towboat pulling
alongside the dock just in front of us and tying up a sailboat it had towed to
the dock, then going around behind us and tying itself up at the dock
also.
Today
we learned the story behind the sailboat needing to be towed. It was a 28-foot boat that was owned by Burt,
a retired man who lives aboard by himself year-round and was traveling home to
NJ. He had run aground in the Neuse
River 4 days ago and his radio had broken down so he was stranded until some
military planes flying by in practice runs called it in. The towboat went over to salvage the wreck
and found the owner aboard. They pulled
him and his boat off the shoal and towed him to the dock in Hobucken, where
they also keep their towboat.
 |
| Starry night |
After
the rain let up, we went into the office to let them know we arrived and wanted
to stay another night. The people
working there were very nice and charged us $28 for both nights! You can’t even get a mooring for 2 nights for
that price. We bought a fresh caught,
3-pound striped bass for supper for another $9 and had a delicious meal of the
fish, ginger sweet potatoes, and mixed veggies at dinnertime. We’ll remember R.E. Mayo Co. for their
hospitality and some more fresh fish on our return trip.
The
sky cleared shortly after sunset, and we were treated to a beautiful starlit
night. The commercial dock doesn’t have
many lights on at night, and Hobucken is very remote from any cities, so it was
dark all around and the stars were bright.
The picture is not nearly as beautiful as the actual sight.
No comments:
Post a Comment