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| Kelly-Peterson 44 | ||
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Coinjock to Belhaven to Beaufort, NC
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We stayed in Coinjock an extra day because
the weather was 'iffy' for the Alligator River. When we finally departed,
we had a beautiful day on the ICW, albeit a long one. We entered Belhaven
just as it was getting dark, which we don't recommend. Fortunately there
were no issues and we enjoyed a nice evening at River Forest Marina.
Departing early the next morning, our plan was to go all the way to Beaufort, NC
(BOW-fort, as opposed to BEW-fort). The day started out nice with Maria
and Nolan making pancakes while crossing the Pungo River, but things took a turn
for the worse on the Neuse River. The forecast was for 25mph winds, which
did not worry us too much so we went ahead as planned. What we didn't
realize was that the Neuse River is considered the second most challenging body
of water on the ICW (after the Chesapeake) and that our jib was too old to
handle the conditions. At the point before turning south towards Oriental,
NC, thirty miles of open water lie between the Neuse and the Atlantic Ocean,
straight out to the Outer Banks. Winds, waves, and current can be - and
were - more intense. The problem we had was with our roller-furling jib
which had more wear on it than we knew: it did not furl properly and in
trying to unfurl it again in 25-30mph winds, a series of events happened very
fast which caused it to tear. Once one tear got started, several more
appeared and we limped our way into Beaufort with shreds of our jib streaming
off the forestay... Below you can see pictures of some previous repair
work on the jib which we had not noticed before. Miraculously Nolan
slept straight through the sail fiasco. After getting a couple of
estimates for a new jib, Paul at Omar Sails in Beaufort was who we decided to go
with and we are very pleased. He's also a very nice man whom we came to
like very much, as we did many of the very nice folks in this little town.
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Coinjock to Belhaven We encountered our first swing bridge, which we photographed from within our warm and cozy enclosure. Then we entered a narrow part of the ICW again. Very beautiful and peaceful. We did pass one other sailboat at the beginning and later on a few small Coast Guard boats. Other than that, it was all ours. Maria and Nolan sat on the bow and watched the backwaters of North Carolina slowly pass by. Nolan continues to enjoy the passages, especially when it's calm enough for him to leave the cockpit.
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| The sunset before arriving at Belhaven was beautiful... But we had to enter the marina at dark. Thankfully the dockmaster talked us through the approach over the radio and met us on the dock to help us tie up. | ||
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Belhaven to Beaufort, NC: The Neuse
River
We began with both the jib and the main up because of the wind right on our beam. We were making wonderful time, averaging over 8 knots. Although it was windy and a little choppy, Maria and Nolan both hung out below for awhile, playing with trains and cooking pancakes. |
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| Now take a closer look at the jib. We actually did not see the previous repair seams in the sail until we looked at these pictures that we had taken earlier in the day. We've pointed them out with red arrows below on the enlargement on the right... You can see the shreds in the pictures at the dock, exactly where the previous repairs had been. One positive thing about having it blow out on the Neuse River is that it is better than it happening between islands somewhere, as it probably would have done given the condition that it was in. | ||
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| Beaufort (read more about it here) | ||
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What a wonderful place! Our original
plans were to spend 2-3 days in Beaufort, but we had to add an extra 7-8 days so
Paul from Omar Sails could complete our new jib. We could have shopped
around and found a used jib, but we decided that with our plans to go offshore
that we would be better off with a brand new sail. The old jib (more like
a genoa) was a 135% sail, but we opted for a 125% for the new one. A
little easier to handle. Paul also made it reefable and shaped it such
that it clears the bow pulpit. The other one did not and had quite a bit
of chafing from hitting the rails of the pulpit. We also had the folks at
his sail loft go over the stitching on the staysail and replace the worn UV
cover. The sail itself has hardly been used and still had fold marks in it
from being new-in-the-bag. We're not sure how old it us, but it's at least
a couple of years old given the shape of the old cover. Paul looked at the
mainsail and said it looked great to him. That was good news as the cost
of sails is not cheap - one new sail is enough.
We all enjoyed our stay at Beaufort Docks, right in the heart of Beaufort. What a wonderful town - very friendly to visiting cruisers. The North Carolina Maritime Museum, a few blocks from the dock, loans out a car to cruisers for up to 2 hrs at a time so that you can run errands. What a lifesaver for us! Several trips in the Lincoln Towncar to West Marine, Boaters World, Wal-Mart, Ace Marine and Hardware, Gaskills Hardware, two pizza places, and the grocery store. Coastal Community Organic Market is also a five-minute walk from the docks, as is the library and Post Office. There is a great little nautical gift and bookstore across from the docks named Scuttlebutt. The people there agreed to accept several packages that we were having shipped to us since the dockmaster is only at the marina for an hour or two a day during the winter. The General Store is where Nolan (and sometimes Brian) got an ice cream cone each day and where we did our laundry. Nolan rode his bike all around town, and then some, for hours each day. Although we had originally hoped to have been in Georgia by the time we finally prepared to leave Beaufort, we couldn't have asked for a better place to layover for awhile.
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| The museum and the loaner car - what nice people... | ||
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| Nolan rode for hours and hours, and helped carry bags home from Coastal Community Market. And you can't leave out the planes, who had quite an interesting adventure in the mulch... | ||
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Nolan asked about the bumpers on the boat - what they were for, what were they called, etc. The next day, he announced that he had found a "bumper" for his bike to rest against - one of the rollers for the floating dock. |
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We also took time to grind fresh oats for oatmeal, sing the blues, and enjoy some gorgeous sunsets from Belisana. |
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January 28 marked the 20th anniversary of the Challenger tragedy and observed by all in Beaufort, as one of the pilots, Michael John Smith, was from Beaufort. |
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It's always nice to find a restaurant, such as Aqua, that lets dogs dine on the patio. |
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Nolan helped Maria salvage pieces of the old jib to use for any sail repairs in the future. We're really hoping not to need them! |
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We finally got the staysail back and our new jib as well. Can't see much of them here but hopefully we'll put them to use soon... |
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Beaufort is very lucky to be getting the Tall Ships this summer, thanks to Horatio Sinbad and Meka II, who placed first in the Class B of America's Sail and got to choose one of the locations for the Tall Ships to visit. Because Meka II was docked directly behind us all week, we were able to see them film a commercial for the event and then took some pictures up close. Nolan didn't care much for Sinbad (being a pirate and all) and ran all the way back to our boat. You can read more about the Tall Ships, America's Sail, Sinbad and Meka II here. Beaufort is really into pirates as the remains of Blackbeard's ship, Queen Anne's Revenge, still lie in the Beaufort Inlet. A few artifacts have been recovered and are on display at the museum. |
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