Thursday, August 14, 2014

Swansboro NC

We awoke to another sunny, dry day with a cool breeze -- the weather has been very cooperative for our trip thus far -- we had been told this could be a "hot, muggy and miserable" trip, but thus far, with a couple of exceptions, we have had very pleasant weather. Hopefully our luck continues to hold out.

Today's run will be for 28 or so miles to Swansboro, NC -- we are working our way down the so-called "Crystal Coast" -- the stretch of NC from Cape Lookout (NE of Beaufort to the Cape Fear River -- the name comes from its "Crystal Clear" waters).

Our desire was to get off early, but as usual, current was ripping through the Marina and backing out of the slip was going to be difficult as best -- discretion being the better part of valour, we chose to wait for a couple of hours until the current weakened some. Even with the wait, backing out was a challenge -- we did a little scraping of a rub rail on a piling, but otherwise "escaped" from the Marina with no new dings.

The Beaufort-Morehead City harbor complex is very complicated and confusing, with many creeks and side channels coming together at the Ocean Inlet and with strong currents everywhere. We had to head down to the Inlet on our way out and then head up and away from it to continue down the Intercoastal. It was an intense 45 minutes or so of sorting out buoys and steering hard through current to keep My Weigh on track.

Passing by Beaufort inlet -- the Atlantic in the distance
Not a great shot, but I liked shadows on the dunes
Once we were out of the chaos of the sister cities, we settled into a long, uneventful run down the Intercoastal. We had current with us for much of the morning, but ended up fighting it for the last couple of hours -- this is typical for this section of Intercoastal -- the currents switch direction at every inlet -- as you approach an inlet that is draining, you get help, once you cross by it, the current switches and you are fighting it -- not much you can do about it.

There were two recommended anchorages near Swansboro, one just before we got to the town and one in its main harbor. Since we weren't planning on getting off the boat, we thought we'd use the more secluded one; after seeing it, however, we opted for going into the main harbor -- there wasn't enough swinging room to make me feel comfortable -- it must have shoaled up since the guide was written.

The anchorage in town was spacious and we were the only boat there when we arrived so dropping the hook was easy. I was hot and feeling grungy so I really wanted to take a swim -- there was quite a bit of current (I'd guess at least 3 knots), so I rigged a life preserver on a line to hang on to the boat -- the water was the color of rose wine (more tannin, I suppose) and I was literally "body surfing" on the current -- kinda fun and very refreshing :-) Sue took a rain check on this swimming session.
Downtown Swansboro -- we didn't go ashore 
Body Surfing in the current
Swansboro sunset
Love those pastels

No comments:

Post a Comment