18 -29th April 2012 -To Beaufort, North Carolina and onto Norfolk
Nimue
Sun 29 Apr 2012 19:42
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A calm weather window allowed us to leave Beaufort, SC via St. Helena Sound, which shaved 20 miles off of our trip to
Beaufort, North Carolina, but we needed to be vigilant passing through the
shoal area in the Sound. Another lovely sail for most of the
271nm journey, but we had to ‘jill’ around outside Beaufort inlet waiting
for daylight before we could enter safely and anchored in our usual spot in
Taylor Creek. Rather than transiting the ICW to Norfolk, we decided
to wait in Beaufort for a suitable weather window to go the outside route via
Cape Hatteras. We waited for a SW gale to pass through, but with another
frontal system forecast, we had no real option but to proceed up the ICW.
 The ‘Backstreet Pub’ in downtown
Beaufort (rather like the pubs in England)
  The busy fishing port in
Beaufort
 The ‘white foamy stuff’ shows how the
seas break in a storm at the Beaufort Inlet entrance
It was chilly as we left Beaufort in (50F) and may
our way to our first bridge of the trip. Before we realised, it was
showing 64ft clearance and the VHF ariel, once again, tinkled against the
supporting girders as we went underneath! Safely onto Oriental where
we were invited to have dinner at Douglas & Matt’s house (Kenny’s
friends). The following day, Kenny on Loon grounded near Fulford
Point/Goose Creek. Despite trying to ease himself out, Loon
wasn’t having any of it! A motor vessel passing by, called on the VHF to
offer some assistance, but it became obvious the skipper (without the help of
his wife) was understandably having some difficulty in setting up lines
and manoeuvring his boat into position at the same time! So it was
Anne to the rescue! After rowing our dinghy over to the power boat and
climbing on board, I was able to set the lines and eventually after full
throttle Loon was dragged off the mud. We eventually made it to
Belhaven just before nightfall and again dropped anchor in our usual spot.
The remainder to the ICW trip was fairly uneventful and we thankfully we
had no problems passing underneath the Wilkerson Bridge, which was showing 65ft
clearance.
  With Douglas & Matt in
Oriental and the little green boat rigged up for long distance
cruising
  Some of the waterside
properties along the ICW
  Wildlife seen along the ICW
:- A Laughing Gull and a Cormorant ......................
  ............a Bald Eagle (the
national emblem of the USA) and yellow bellied slider
  Preparing lines to drag
Loon off the mud (Anne on the power boat)
 Loon following
close behind Nimue up the ICW
 Sunset in the Belhaven
anchorage
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