Day 87 – N 34° 43.134’ W 76° 42.292’ Morehead City, NC

New Bern, NC which is 20 miles off the ICW up the Neuse River and is billed as the sailing capital of North Carolina, appealed to us as a next destination from Hobucken.  Our decision would be based on when there would be a period of northerly winds in our area.  We want to sail in the ocean from Beaufort/Morehead City to Cape Fear and prefer to do it in northerly winds, but we would need a day to get from New Bern to the inlet at Beaufort.  Northerly winds this time of year are fairly rare and tend to last for only one day.  As it turned out, the forecast on this Wednesday as we are leaving Hobucken, predicts northerly winds on Friday, so there would not be time to get to New Bern and have time to spend a day or so to see it.  Consequently, we pointed Kite south, towards Morehead City and made a reservation at a marina there, conveniently located close to the inlet.  It turns out that they are having a billfish tournament in Morehead City this week, and it was difficult to find a marina that could accommodate us, but we located Portside Marina in Morehead City and reserved our space there.

Lyn, ready for budget air-conditioning

Southwest winds were forecast, but they turned out to be more westerly before turning southwest in the late morning, so we got in a couple of hours of sailing in the Neuse River before the wind diminished and turned southwest.  That was an unexpected treat.  The day started out at about 75°F and by noon was in the low 80s.  Until the wind freshened in mid-afternoon, it was just plain HOT and humid.  Lyn resorted to her time-tested budget air-conditioning – dousing ourselves, fully clothed, in water.  The cooling effect is immediate and lasts for a couple of hours.  You just have to remember to remove items like cell phones and wallets from your pockets before turning on the water….

We arrived in Morehead City around 14:30, just as the southerly wind was starting to really kick up.  Needing fuel, we pulled up to the fuel dock and the dockmaster/owner, Denard Harris, Ph.D., told us we could stay at the fuel dock for our stay.  This is a good thing, because we were on the south side of the dock, and the wind was so strong it is unlikely we could have got off the fuel dock.  After securing Kite to the dock, we took a walk for a few blocks to where they had set up the billfish tournament weigh-in.  No boats arrived during the hour we were there, so we decided to explore the area a little.  We found the ice cream shop, which provided us some relief from the heat, and we saw a boat that had got some good eating fish – just not billfish.  Eventually we returned to Kite not having seen any billfish, but eager to get out of the heat and sample Kite’s air conditioning, which was very refreshing!

Mahi-mahi and yellowfin tuna from one boat

The wind will remain southerly and get stronger tomorrow, before easing up tomorrow night and shifting to the northwest by Friday morning.  At least that is what “Tall Tales” NOAA has been telling us, so we’ll plan to leave early Friday morning and sail in the ocean to Wrightsville Beach, retracing the steps of our trip north.  Meanwhile tomorrow, we’ll stock up on some groceries and Lyn will have one of her monthly blood tests at the nearby hospital outpatient lab.