Cigars, Beers, and Bumper Boats in Beaufort, NC

Oriental to Beaufort  – 21 nautical miles sailed, 1 bridge, 4 kilometres walked

The only excitement we had during our three hour journey from Oriental to Beaufort was being passed by a big powerboat named WEEZER. I radio’d him and asked if he had a Hash Pipe on board. He got it. If you don’t, just google it and you will be rewarded.

 

Getting into Beaufort was weird as there are several ways in and many channels around the various islands, but I had my route mapped so it was not difficult. What was tricky was finding a spot in the Taylor Creek anchorage already full of boats. We tried one spot but after putting out the required amount of chain we found we were swinging too close to a catamaran. So we pulled up, moved, then tried again and found a spot that seemed okay, but still had one catamaran and a couple of sailboats nearby.

 

A lovely thing then happened. Ana’s been real grape jelly of our friends Kate and Ben who have seen dolphins several times and a whale just to rub it in real hard. Well, Ana finally saw her dolphins. A small pod passed right by our boat and we got to see their grey curved backs rolling over the waves with little spouts of seawater spraying up. I hope we see plenty more.

We took the dinghy into shore and tied it up at the free dinghy dock then walked the town. Beaufort’s centre is compact but full of lots of shops and restaurants. Not much in the way of boat fixing shops, mind you – more vacationer type stuff. They even had a double decker red Beaufort Historical Society bus moseying around town with plenty of folks onboard listening intently to the interpretive guide sitting at the front, pointing at things.

 

Our journey took us to Big Daddy Wesley’s Grocery, which was really more of a giant convenience store, but we did find a pack of eggs and jug of milk, plus a package of two leafy cigars for $1.86 from a giant wall of them in various flavours. I fired up one of those bad boys after leaving the store and it was shockingly good. I was enjoying it so much with my eyes rolled back in my head and a cloud of smoke around my face that Ana left me leaning against a fence, conveniently next to a craft brewery, while she went to check out the shops. I puffed that little turd down to the last nub then grabbed myself a local IPA and sat on the streetside watching the world go by, and the historical bus. I met a lovely local couple there – Duke and Kara (damn, I hope I didn’t get her name wrong, she was so nice) and their two well behaved fluffy dogs. They weren’t entirely local, but were from a town close to Raleigh, and in Beaufort for a little vacation. They told me all about North Carolina and we talked about all sorts of stuff, along with Ana who joined us later, and were well on our way to becoming best friends but then we had to go to check on the boat and get the warmed milk in the fridge before it transferred into cottage cheese. I have to say it again – Americans are SO friendly and always willing to talk with strange Canadians.

 

We dinghy’d back to the boat but were waved over by our catamaran neighbours so we stopped to talk to them. The wife said she thought we were anchored too close, but told her we put out 90 feet of chain and had been monitoring our anchor alarm for movement and it was good and not infringing on their space. She said they had pulled in some of their chain just in case, then we ended up having a nice conversation with them.

Back at the boat we enjoyed a a cocktail in the warm cockpit as we enjoyed the view over the anchorage. The tide had changed and now the three knot current was charging through in the other direction, but our boat anchor seemed to have reset well and we were still holding solidly. A while later a couple from a different catamaran came over in their dinghy and told us the other catamaran had been swinging all over the place all afternoon during slack tide and they had way, way too much chain out as they were floating into the middle of the channel then actually floated all the way over to SeaLight and banged into her a few times. I told them it was probably our fault; maybe we anchored too close, but they said no way, our boat was circling like it should have been but their’s was out of control, and they hadn’t been on the boat to see it happening.

 

After thanking them, we checked our hull and there did not appear to be any damage at all so no harm done. But, yet another learning moment. When the tide current is running, boats are fine and well behaved as they are all being pulled in the same direction. But when that current subsides, the boats will start to wander all over the place as there’s no force keeping them in place, and this is where having too much anchor chain out can be a problem.

Every day is a new learning experience.