Boating with Sunset Delight: 2019: Swansboro NC

26 October 2019

Depart: Trent River Anchorage, New Bern, NC 9:00

Arrive: Caspers Marina, Swansboro, NC 4:20

Distance: 61 nm

Today’s travels were filled with interesting animal events. First, as Clark pulled in the anchor, I stood ready at the helm and watched a river otter playing in the water in front of the boat. Most of the time it was under water, but every so often it would stick its head up two or three times in a row to get air and then swim under water again.

Immediately after pulling up the anchor, we traveled through the open railroad bridge and the open-on-demand, Neuse River bridge. As we approached and passed through the opening of the railroad bridge, I could not believe my eyes. Rows and rows of seagulls sat on the tracks and rails. Having see Hitchcock’s “The Birds” as a child, this looked like it could be something out of that horror movie.

Passing through Railroad Bridge

Birds on every rail for the length of the track over the water

Three or four abreast!

Some even chased "Home Too" out onto the Neuse River

Motoring along Adam’s Creek, we heard on the VHF radio that a dog was swimming across from one side to the other. We could see the dog making his way to shore but with all the bulkhead, we saw no good way for him to exit the creek. Two men on shore saw the dog coming and one climbed down some rocks to pull the dog in by its collar. Shortly thereafter, we saw two men standing on the opposite shore – probably wondering how they were going to get their dog back.

Puppy at bulkhead

Puppy swimming to the rocks

We spotted some dolphin fins today. None of them wanted to come play by the boat. I guess our speed was not quite up to their standards.

On Adam’s Creek, we also saw a few wrecked boats – a houseboat, some pleasure boats, and a fishing trawler named Miss Melissa.

Sunken Houseboat

Sunken Fishing Vessel - "Miss Melissa"

We had summer-like weather today and, since it was a Saturday, lots of boaters were out enjoying a day on the water.

Beached boat with colorful umbrella shade and a flying kite

Having weighed the options every which way from Sunday, Clark opted to take us to Caspers Marina in Swansboro, NC. We have stayed here before. Worried about reaching the marina before their 5:00 closing time, we did a speed / time check every hour or so to confirm we could make it. The Neuse River and up to Beaufort we had excellent speeds of well over 9 knots even with lower than our normal RPMs. After Beaufort, the current turned against us and we hoped we had gained enough time on the earlier segment of our ride to make up for the slower speeds. Overall, we made better time than expected and arrived 30 minutes earlier than we hoped for.

Caspers Marina, Swansboro, NC

Wanting some exercise, I talked Clark into going to the grocery store via bicycle. We had to hurry to get there and back before the sun set. As soon as we got the boat secured, we pulled out the bikes to go. I started to follow Clark and I heard a nasty tinkling sound I had heard just last month. Uh-oh! I looked and sure enough one of my spokes is broken in half! I yelled to Clark to come back because I could not go. He checked the bike, decided it was not too bad, secured the broken spoke to a nearby one with scotch tape, and said, “Okay, let’s go!” The bike survived the trip to the store and back and then a cruise around the historic district without complaining, so I guess the scotch tape was a good “fix”.