Putting a Bow on Beaufort, and the Rest of North Carolina, Post 25-24

Wednesday, June 4 (Beaufort, NC) to Thursday, June 12 (Great Bridge, VA)

182 nm (210 miles)

Beaufort, NC

Horses on Taylor Creek next to the crowded anchorage

After a two-day motor trip up the ICW, we reached Beaufort Wednesday afternoon and dropped the hook opposite John Newton Park and Clawson’s Restaurant. By Thursday morning, the anchorage had filled with boats just before the predicted rain.

Several boats transitioned from marina slips to the anchorage, which is contrary to the usual movement from the anchorage to a slip. This shift was due to a blue marlin fishing tournament taking place in nearby Morehead City, resulting in Beaufort accommodating many of the overflow vessels. The sight of numerous tuna towers, sport fishers and other boats lined up along the Beaufort waterfront was impressive.

We enjoyed watching the procession of boats from our vantage point in the cockpit.

During our visit, we spent time walking around town, exploring stores, and visiting various restaurants and pubs. We also made a four-mile round trip to pick up boat parts. There is a farmers market held every Saturday during the summer months where we stocked up on a variety of vegetables.

Downtown Beaufort | Farmers Market | Old Burying Ground

View of anchorage from Rachel Carson Reserve

Saturday afternoon we took our dinghy over to Rachel Carson Reserve. This is the estuary with the wild horses we saw on the shore of Taylor Creek, but we did not see them during our walk around the island. We suspect that the horses find a shady, quiet interior spot to hide during the busy weekends. The trail made for a nice, although muddy walk. After our walk we sat on our dinghy with our feet in the water and watched the busy beach and waterway.

Crowded anchorage required fending off other boats during slack tides

When we weren’t fending off nearby boats during the rainy day, we tackled a few boat projects:

• Anchor washdown pump - Although we ordered the “same” washdown pump, it was still necessary drill new holes for the mounting block. The new pump works great! It is more powerful, and it shuts off when nozzle valve is closed (the old pump would just keep running until we switched it off at the control panel).

• Foredeck light - We reviewed of photos of the mast lighting that we took in 2021 when the was mast off the boat, so we were able to easily order a new foredeck bulb, without going up the mast. As a bonus, we found an LED replacement bulb. Now the trick is to find calm conditions coinciding with the time to climb the mast. Since we don’t have any night sails planned, we can stall on this project for a while.

• Depth sounder - An attempt to wiggle and tighten wires did not seem to stop the random zero readings on the depth sounder. After some research, it appears that turbulence under the water surface may cause the readings to drop to zero. The issue seems to have faded away now that boat traffic is normalized. We suppose that time will tell whether or not this remains to be an issue…

North from Beaufort

From Beaufort, we headed north up the ICW with the Chesapeake Bay in our sights. The ICW route north from Beaufort continues to run along a series of rivers and canals and the next several days were spent motoring all day long and occasionally raising a sail. The route was lightly developed with much less boat traffic than the areas south of Beaufort. At times, the scenery is beautiful, and then there are those long straight stretches of the same beauty. With the engine running nearly all day, every day, sometimes the trip felt dull due the drone of the loud engine. To help combat this, we’ve started doing one-hour shifts at the helm.

Day 1, Sunday, June 8

• Galliants Channel from Beaufort to join the ICW north of town

• Newport River

• Core Creek

• Adams Creek Canal

• Adams Creek

• Neuse River

• Bay River

37.5 nm (43 miles)

Anchored: Bonner Bay off Bay River

We were treated with the ability to sail on the Neuse River for nearly three hours. This is a huge water body with plenty of depth outside of the ICW. The seas were calm until we neared the Bay River and by then large thunderstorms were threatening the area. Thus, the engine came on and we made haste for our anchorage. The skies were very dark and lightning was nearby as we set anchor. We were happy to have everything settled on the boat in a very quiet undeveloped spot before the rain arrived.

Day 2, Monday, June 9

• Bay River

• Gale Creek

• a cut

• Goose Creek

• Pamlico River

• Pungo River

25 nm (29 miles)

Anchored: Pantego River, off of ICW near Belhaven, NC

After setting anchor we dinghied over to the town’s dinghy dock. However, most of the businesses are closed on Mondays and the place felt like a ghost town. Belhaven has a lot of activities on the weekends, so it would be nice to time a return to this town to see it in action.

The anchorage was not crowded with most boats anchored further up river than us. The night's winds had more of a southern component than expected, and as the waves built up and hobby-horsed Utopia, we understood why the rest of the boats were tucked further up the river.

Day 3, Tuesday, June 10

• Pantego River, from anchorage to ICW

• Pungo River

• Alligator River-Pungo River Canal, (22 mile long cut with one bend!)

• Alligator River

48.6 nm (56 miles)

Anchored: Sandy Point-1, Little Alligator River, off of ICW

After passing through the Alligator River swing bridge, we headed over to a very quiet and pretty anchorage. Reaching the anchorage required zig-zagging through a minefield of crab pots, reminding me of sailing the Apalachee Bay area in North Florida.   

Day 4, Wednesday, June 11

• Albemarle Sound (had very calm conditions for the 12 mile crossing)

• North River

• North Carolina Cut (had to stall for 10 minutes to wait the narrow  channel for a barge to pass under Coinjock Bridge)

29.7 nm (34 miles)

Docked: Coinjock Marina

Docking at the Coinjock Marina went well until the dockhand changed the docking plan. Jimmy handed a line to the dockhand explaining it was our stopping line and where to cleat it off. The boat slowed to a near stop, and I turned the wheel away from the dock with the engine in idle-forward, completing a classic textbook stopping-line maneuver.  However, the dockhand released the stopping line without saying anything; things got a little messy, but slowly and carefully the dockhand worked Utopia back to sit about a foot in front of the trawler behind us. He knew what he was doing, but his communication skills were extremely poor. That evening we treated ourselves to dinner at the Coinjock Restaurant, a lovely wayside along a long quiet ICW.

Dockhands ensure maximum number of boats along the long dock

Departing the dock in the morning was a dream departure using bow-out springline maneuver to exit facing the light current. There was some wind from behind and into the dock, but it was not strong enough to overcome the current. These text-book docking maneuvers do a lot to restore docking confidence.

Day 5, Thursday, June 12

• North Carolina Cut

• Coinjock Bay / Cedar Bay

• Currituck Bay

• North Landing River

• Virginia Cut

31.4 nm (36 miles)

Docked: Great Bridge, Virginia

Our final ICW trek in North Carolina consisted of very narrow channels, even in areas where the waterway widens way out. These waterways required close attention, making the time pass quickly, but making us very glad to hand the helm over at the end of the hour. There was no notable indication for the Stateline, but we used our charts to aid in our celebration for reaching Virginia. That night we stopped at a free dock located in Great Bridge, Virginia.  

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