Beaufort, NC

We woke to a calm morning -- yesterday's howling winds were gone.

Our goal for the day would be to get to Beaufort, our first stop close to the Ocean since Cape May -- we were both looking forward to smelling the salt in the air and being able to take a swim in clear (as opposed to tannin-colored) water. We are going to skip Oriental NC, a town that has become know as the "Sailing Capital of North Carolina" -- we had been there many years ago (by car) -- nice enough place but the siren call of the Ocean was much stronger.

Beaufort advertises itself as the "3rd oldest city in North Carolina" -- first settled in the early 1700's, the city became infamous as a haven for pirates. Piracy was common occupation in the area in the 17th and 18th centuries; some would walk a horse with a lantern around its neck along the beaches of the Outer Banks to intentionally lure ships to their "doom".  Edmund Teach, a.k.a., Blackbeard, was known to hang out in Beaufort and what are believed to be the remains of his ship, the Queen Ann's Revenge, were recently discovered in Beaufort Inlet.

Today' Beaufort is quite gentrified, consisting of mostly tchotchke shops, boutiques, restaurants and the like. Most of the downtown area hasn't changed much since the 1700's -- the old buildings still abound. The old part of town lies along Taylor Creek, a straight as an arrow estuary of the inlet, the other side of which is Carrot Island, a sanctuary for feral horses -- all in all, a fun place for us to stop.

The trip from Broad Creek to Beaufort was relatively simple: up the Neuse River, into Adams Creek which eventually (through a canal cut or two) gets you to the top of the waterway connected to Beaufort inlet -a 30 mile or so run.

The Neuse River was like glass -- hardly a wind driven ripple on it

This little "cottage" was at the entrance to Adam's creek

No, this isn't "Jaws"-- it's a porpoise feeding in Adams Creek

More feeding porpoise -- we saw many pods on this creek

Anyone interested in a chateau on Adams creek?

Suddenly all of the Osprey nests were empty -- the chicks were out on their own

Our original plan was to drop and anchor in Taylor's creek, right at the Beaufort waterfront. Unfortunately, there wasn't much room for us -- the creek is long and narrow and has a strong reversing current due to the proximity of the inlet -- we really couldn't find a spot with enough swing room for My Weigh (note to self: get second anchor for boat so you can control swing in situations like this). We ended up taking a slip at the Beaufort Town Dock Marina.

The landing in the slip wasn't pretty but got the job done -- we got pinned to the floating dock before we got all the way into the slip by the strong current ripping through the creek. With some  pushing and tugging by the Marina staff, assisted by My Weigh's engine, we managed to get her in and settled for the evening.

Downtown Beaufort, from our cockpit; A (good) band played till 10 each evening at the bar in the building to the left