10/28/14
Beaufort NC, ICW, Town Creek Marina
Position: 34 43.516N, 76 39.898W
Posted by Bill

I started the day with troubleshooting the alternator problems. Following the manual I did a step by step check as specified, and arrived at the notorious “call customer support”. Tricia did some laundry and I washed the boat. Another beautiful day with a high around 77. We left Oriental and transited Adams Creek to Beaufort. Adams creek was really picturesque with the pine tree shore lines:

As we worked our way south, we started to see more and more houses:


Some were pretty impressive. Adams Creek was cool but at several points in the middle of the channel our depth sounder went to 0! I don’t think we went aground but it was a sphincter puckering event for sure!

As we came out of Adams Creek we had our first dolphin sighting just off the starboard beam:

We saw several pairs of them. It was exciting! We’ve been waiting for the opportunity to see them.

We made the turn into the Town Creek area where we were going to grab a slip at Town Creek Marina. We wanted to pump out our holding tank first, so we got directions via the marine radio. The directions she gave didn’t jive with the guy waiting for us on the dock, and for good reason. She was taking us right across a shoal and we ran aground in mud. I was able to back it off and follow the directions from the guy on the dock, which were good. Then we went to our slip. Man it is tight in these slips, and you are docking with wind and currents…I was glad to get Island Bound in to the slip and have a drink!

We walked into town and checked out the main drag along the waterfront. Lots of bars, restaurants, and shopping. Beaufort has so much history with pirates, wars and just general sailing scalawags! We chowed on shrimp and came back to the boat. I guess we are going to have to limp along with the intermittent alternator, because the marine services team here is swamped. They said this is the largest group of people going south that they have seen in a long time…maybe forever. Hard to figure out why…duh…snow coming this Friday in northern Ohio…mid 70s here.

The main drag in Beaufort NC: