Up at first light for our trip up the ICW but, first we had to lift the dinghy and motor, then retrieve our 160ft of anchor line and anchor which took about an hour.
Now we are motoring the one hour leg over to the Beaufort Inlet, then entering the inlet with wind against the current which makes the waves bigger. They never look big in photos but imagine these are fairly rough waters as we fight against the 3kt current flowing out the inlet. Another hour and we are through the inlet and past Beaufort and working our way northward.
Entering Adams Creek and we have to slow and loiter for a tug and barge to come down current through the narrow bridge opening. Not room for him and us both in the bridge waters.
When I see these tug and barges I always think I am happy to not be a tug captain and have to deal with recreational boaters with no idea what they are doing on the water. Its amazing more are not run over by these large barges. Interestingly, nearly every bridge on the ICW shows evidence of being struck multiple times by barges in past years. It is clearly not easy handling these barges when the wind and currents come into play.
The advantage of leaving Cape Lookout a day earlier than planned is there is good wind today to sail down the Neuse River. We finally have the sails out and the engine turned off for the first time since leaving Florida on our trip north.
We're sailing "wing-on-wing" with the main and genoa out to opposite sides. We're not using a preventer or whisker pole, so we have to be very alert for wind shifts to prevent the genoa from collapsing or, more dangerous, the mainsail boom from jibing across the deck and breaking something. We have to turn in 30 minutes, so I don't want to go on deck and put out the pole and preventer lines (which takes over 30 minutes to accomplish). So, we will just be very careful steering for the next half hour.
We made the turn and are now sailing on a beam reach up the Bay River. We have all 3 sails out and are making good speed up the river. This is the type of sailing our boat is built for - and can rarely be experienced when you are trying to get south or north down the constricted waters of the ICW.
Had to insert this photo to show our speed at 7.2kts. That is hull speed for our boat, the maximum speed the boat can sail except when it is surfing down steep waves.
The wind has continued to build to nearly 20kts on the beam. We had to put 1 deep reef in the mainsail, but are still making 7kts.
We got to continue this great sail for the next hour, then it was time to turn into the canal to our stopping point at Mayo Seafood. So much for sailing.
Our dockage for the night at Mayo Seafood. There's no power or water but the price is right - $15 for the night and, a dock to tie up to so we don't have to anchor with our broken windlass. We'll head off to Dowry Creek tomorrow.
The docks at Hobucken.
