Southbound 2020 – #8: Beaufort, NC to Smeads Ferry, NC

By RobinOctober 24, 2020 ( 1 )

Travel Summary

Conditions: Dense morning fog burned off by 9:30am, 69° to start, Sun and Clouds, 79° to finish. Light North northwest winds 3-5 mph, waters calm.

Distance traveled: 37.7 nautical miles

Time underway: 4 hours 55 minutes

Average Speed: 7.9 kts

Max Speed: 10.4 kts

Left Beaufort about 10:50 am. We were fortunate enough to witness both Trump and Biden parades today before we left. I must say that it was rather interesting to watch the different types of people in the parades. The Trump supporters were in their boats and jacked up pickup trucks, yelling “Four more years” with lots of horn honking. The Biden supporters were riding bicycles with Biden flags yelling “orange man bad” ??? My phone camera had a misfunction and refused to take pictures of the Biden parade (go figure!)

Doing a short run today, we have been having difficulty finding marinas to accommodate us, apparently this is a busy time of year and marinas are full.

Just south of Morehead City, ICW depths in some places were about 3 ft. under our keel. We passed a grounded sailboat who asked a power catamaran ahead of us to wake him so he could try to get loose, it worked but he got stuck again. Another sailboat stopped to help but we weren’t there for the results of their efforts.

Very heavy recreational boat traffic today. Most boaters were very courteous and gave a slow pass (meaning they slow down and you slow down so that their wake when passing doesn’t throw you into next week), others were very inconsiderate and waked the hell out of us. My language wasn’t very ladylike at those times! LOL! We are always conscious of our wake and it’s affect on others. The water, however, is definitely getting bluer!

On some sections of the ICW today we could see the Atlantic Ocean just past the dunes off our port. We’ve been able to see beautiful green/blue water and even some dolphins.

For any of our Salem County friends, this reminded me of Pigeon Shit Island off Elsinboro!

Arrived at Swan Point Marina about 3:45 pm. Unfortunately, our bow thruster acted up again and was stuck in full-on. Fortunately, this time I knew what to do, so I ran down to the bow and pulled the plug. We thought we found the fix, apparently not!

Swan Point is definitely not a resort marina. But the dockmaster was very friendly and helped us tie up. It may only get one star, but at least we’re tied up with electric. Tomorrow, off to South Port.