No, we didn’t get stuck in place.  The towns of Beaufort in both North & South Carolina are spelled the same, while pronounced differently.  Beaufort, North Carolina is pronounced BOH-fert, while Beaufort, South Carolina is pronounced “BEW-fert.”

We stayed in a marina right on the waterfront in Beaufort, North Carolina for a week, as besides wanting to spend more time enjoying this fun town, we were hiding out from possible bad weather forecasted. The wind & rain never really made an appearance, Lori was able to make it to most of the gift shops & we made it to several of the great restaurants!

Much of the reason we never felt any wind is this beastly yacht moored off our bow

Before that yacht pulled in blocking our view, we could watch the wild horses just across the channel on Carrot Island

Overall the weather has been great this fall!  Probably the best fall travel weather of our 11 years with no hurricanes & only mild cold fronts. We could easily be in Florida by now, but we have insurance requirements which keep us north of the Florida line until after November 1st.

This is the old, beater loaner car the marina offers – the inside door handles don’t work, every idiot light on the dash goes on & go slow as the brakes are a little iffy!  But it’s “free” & got us back & forth to the bakery & grocery store.

Between Beaufort & Wrightsville Beach, NC we usually head offshore to get a break from the boats on ICW, avoid several opening bridges (even for us) & the Camp Lejeune firing range, but the offshore seas were still running 4′ – 6′ so we stayed inside.  Yes, the ICW gets closed occasionally while the military perform live fire exercises.  As we approached, the lights weren’t flashing & the folks on the naval patrol boats waved, so all was good – for us.  Just after passing thru, the lights began to flash, the patrol boats took their positions & we heard on the radio for the other boats to hold their positions – for 3 hours – before they would be able to continue.  Sometimes we have good timing!

While in Carolina Beach (for donuts… I mean groceries) we heard Amazon was shooting a movie. Unfortunately, the only thing more boring than watching filming, is watching the crew waiting to shut down the road to set up to begin filming.  Nevertheless, a surprising number of movies (& some TV series) are shot in the Carolinas.

We stopped in Georgetown for most of the day as they offer a great free day dock which allowed us to eat, explore & buy the best shrimp (almost) right off the boats at Independent Seafood.

We made it to beautiful (“BEW” – that’s how we remember) Beaufort, SC.  Oddly, the marina in-town said they were full, but we saw lots of empty slips. Hmmm… Oh well, we simply used the town’s great new, free day dock every day while anchoring nearby every night – much nicer anyway & it’s always very nice to save a couple hundred bucks – especially as the price of diesel is approaching twice what it was 2 years ago…

We’re slowly continuing south, planning to stop at Hilton Head (for the first time), then to Isle of Hope (near Savannah) to visit some fellow PDQ cruiser friends.

Norfolk, Virginia is generally considered the northern start of the AICW (Atlantic Intercoastal Waterway) which continues all of the way to Key West, Florida.  Officially, it begins in Boston, but since much of Boston to Norfolk is open water, Norfolk is commonly referred to “Mile 0” of the AICW.

Transiting thru Norfolk is both fascinating & challenging, as it is one of the world’s busiest harbors.  Not only does it handle the most & the largest cargo ships on the east coast, it is also home to Naval Station Norfolk – the largest naval station in the world!  The warships, of course, are the most difficult challenge to avoid & avoid you must.  Blasting on the VHF radio “Warship 75 is entering Norfolk channel inbound to pier #6 – All vessels must maintain a 500 yard security zone at all times”.  Not so easy, as the channel narrows, they are zooming at up to 16 knots, then suddenly slow to maneuver or wait for tugs to assist, all awhile other boats of all types/sizes are zipping about & wait – did I mention some of the largest cargo ships in the world?

This year we were able to go fast & pass wide around this warship as they slowed for their tugs & yet get far ahead of the large approaching cargo ship which had “slowed down” to 12 knots.  In the photo above you can see the 2 powerboats attempting to outrun the cargo ship.

Fortunately after only 12 miles, a few bridges & the Great Bridge Lock, ahhhh … peace at daybreak.  No more naval vessels or cargo ships – just the occasional tug & barge.

Lots of great sunsets

Reluctantly I got up early enough for this great sunrise, but couldn’t go outside to take a better shot due to the tens of thousands of midges swarming outside.  Some areas of North Carolina suffer from midge invasions (various small flying bugs) which swarm & leave their hard-to-remove “deposits” behind.

We observe many bald eagles – mostly just (majestically) sitting there.  This time in the Alligator-Pungo River Canal, we were treated to a 10 minute show of a pair of eagles “following us” along the canal.  At one point, one went “fishing”, caught a small fish, but they fought over it & lost it!  This is what a pissed-off bald eagle looks like!

I almost ran over this poor guy. Why does the deer cross the canal? He wouldn’t say!

We are spending a few days enjoying Beaufort awaiting better weather to continue on.  We usually head offshore from here to Wrightsville Beach, but we’ll see what the weather brings.