Day 10 - Alligator River to Beaufort, NC
Today we went from the Alligator River Marina to the Town docks in Beaufort, NC. We left at 7:15 AM. Our first adventure was passing through swing bridge just outside of our marina. We had to wait for several boats to join us before they would open the bridge. Once through we headed to the Alligator/Pungo Canal. It was one of the prettiest runs to date. We did 22 miles on this canal. It was early enough that there were few boats out yet. The water was like glass. I posted a few videos of this part of the trip. We did pass a barge part way through. It was a very close pass. The canal is not very wide and you want to remain in the center. The canals have downed trees on either side that can float out into the canals.
We have learned the art of the slow pass. There are so many boats traveling south this time of year on the ICW. We are all going different speeds too. If you want to pass them, you radio the boat ahead of you and ask to do a slow pass on the port or starboard side. The other boat will slow down and move over so you can pass them slowly, leaving a minimal wake. We pulled into Beaufort at 12:45. We did just over 100 miles today.
We took a lot of spray due to the direction of the wind and the waves hitting us on the starboard beam. Doug did the outside cleaning and I tackled the inside. Once done we decided to explore the town. It is a very quaint town with lots of restaurants and shops, many were closed because it was Sunday. We ate lunch at a small restaurant on the dock. The food was good but it was super slow. After lunch Doug went back to the boat and I went shopping. Most shops closed up by 5.
Our TV doesn’t get any channels here. We watched the Pat’s game on the iPad. We ate dinner on the boat. Tomorrow we are heading out and our goal is to reach Southport, NC. It is about 100 miles but this will be a winding passage. We never know how quickly we can make a trip. The first day was super slow but today was pretty quick travel. I suspect tomorrow will be slower.
We hope to make Charleston in two days. Our scooter parts got delivered to RI today. We are having them shipped to our friend’s house in SC. We will stay a couple of days in Charleston while we visit with friends.
The weather today was gorgeous. It was 56 degrees when we got up. We ran with the canvas down to keep warm. It got windier as the day passed. There was a lot of top chop as we got closer to Beaufort.