We're Off

Beez Neez now Chy Whella
Big Bear and Pepe Millard
Thu 29 Dec 2011 22:47
Leaving Beaufort
 
 
 
 
 
Leaving Beaufort 001  Leaving Beaufort 002
 
 
I opened my eyes this morning at five past seven and could not hear or feel a thing. Bearing in mind yesterday we were bobbing about post-storm front and very unsure if the weather this morning would have settled or not. We had seen the dock master to pay for the extra day, and he offered us a special long term rate which would have been so easy to accept as we have fallen into a nice pattern here. Each day a few chores, a bimble out for an hour in one of the marina cars or a gentle wander. Home via the General Store and the best ice cream in the world, a few games, supper and watching an episode or two sat up in bed. Perfect.
It is hard to picture yesterday when the floating dock was actually higher than the boardwalk and there were white horses all around Beez, wind gusting to twenty eight knots. We would have loved to have taken a picture but it was raining so hard visibility was zero.
Bear pottered around doing his final jobs saying, we may as well leave there is a light frost on the deck. Definitely time to leave. So from being so settled here to slipping the lines at half past seven was all quite a quick business. This is one of those docks you have to leave at slack tide or the water comes through like a rinse cycle in an industrial washing machine. We slid out on this glass-like water and as we pulled away the dock master waved.
 
 
Leaving Beaufort 004  Leaving Beaufort 005
 
Leaving Beaufort 008 - Copy
 
Moments later we were in the channel. Then we took this ‘guard of honour’ as a good omen
 
 
BB to Mile Hammock 002
 
Passing the entrance to ‘Tommy the Fridge Man’ the only movement on the surface of the water was from Beez herself
 
 
BB to Mile Hammock 003  BB to Mile Hammock 004
 
We could see the old peoples home in the distance and I heard an audible sigh from the skipper as we passed it. I think he feels lucky to have not been collared
 
 
BB to Mile Hammock 007
 
We were soon passing under Morehead City Bridge, it felt good to be on the move
 
 
BB to Mile Hammock 008
 
Something as sailors we have never seen before – zero wind
 
 
BB to Mile Hammock 012
 
Our first opening bridge
 
 
BF to Mile Hammock 002
 
The familiar scene of the ICW
 
 
BF to Mile Hammock 013  BF to Mile Hammock 017
 
A new one on us was to see a Billy goat wandering along. Many dolphins playing and fishing
 
 
BF to Mile Hammock 021  BF to Mile Hammock 022  BF to Mile Hammock 023
 
Bear took these shots of tail-slapping
 
 
BF to Mile Hammock 026  BF to Mile Hammock 029
 
A very pleasant first day with thirty four miles behind us
 
 
BB to Carolina Beach 007
 
We settled happily in Mile Hammock Bay. There was an unexpected side-show from a yacht that came boring past us and firmly went aground
 
 
Leaving Beaufort 008
 
One last look at our ‘guard of honour’
 
 
 
 
 
ALL IN ALL A VERY GOOD DAY