2020: Beaufort to New Bern NC

13 May 2020
Depart: Beaufort, NC Anchorage 9:50
Homer Smith Fuel Dock 10:00 - 11:00
Arrive: New Bern, NC Anchorage - Fairfield Harbour 3:25
Distance: 38 nm

With a sunny day today, we felt warm when not moving but, with the wind, we were chilly when underway. We went from no jacket to bundled up in short order.

Some scenes around Beaufort area this morning ...

Traffic passing our anchorage

Fishing boat fleet

We stopped at Homer Smith Marina for fuel before continuing our travels today. Having never stopped here before, we had a bit of trouble finding the dock, and when we did, the dock was busy with the Mainship Maggie Jo picking up fuel and doing a pump-out. With Maggie Jo at the dock, the fact that it was a fuel dock was obscured from view.

After a 25-minute wait, we got to pull up to the dock to fuel. We picked up over 300 gallons of diesel and paid only $1.40 per gallon. Great price! As we pulled away, the attendant called, "Next!" Another Mainship, Adiago, pulled up to the dock for fuel and pump-out after we left. I remember seeing Maggie Jo on the water not so long ago. It was wrapped up, but I spied an AGLCA white looper flag on their bow.

As we made our way from the fuel dock back to the ICW, we struggled with the low water and hard-to-read markers in the area. I called out the low-depth numbers as they dropped like a rock until, whoops, we bumped - no water. Clark backed off and searched for water all around. I was so glad he was piloting here! Slowly the numbers started to go up, and Clark managed to get us on our way into deeper water.

Uh-oh - needs a tow!
Glad that wasn't us!

As we left the Beaufort area, we passed by the place where our friends, Beverly and Dave, keep their boat Amelie.

Markers markers everywhere in the area
where Amelie docks

New Bern is a relatively short distance from Beaufort, so we had a rather short day ahead of us. Having been on the ocean the last couple of days with just water to admire, we relaxed and took in the scenes as we traveled the ICW.

We passed multiple shipwrecks ...

Miss Melissa under water

de-masted sailboat

Sloping houseboat

As we motored along, we passed by numerous houses, and I noticed one where the owners were in the process of changing their siding from a cream color to baby blue. Two or three houses away sat a house already sided in baby blue . That generated a conversation about house colors.

A little further along, we saw a turquoise-colored house and the neighboring house in lavender with white trim. Clark surprised me by saying he would prefer the house in "purple" to the one in "blue". After that we kept noticing other houses and the colors that were chosen. Some were rather striking in color.

Lime green house stands out and
the pink doors are the icing on the cake

Just a little ways down the waterway ...
Blue with pink windows
What is it with pink trim here?

Faux log cabin with green roof - why?

As I looked for houses with interesting color choices, I saw one with lots of adult toys out front.

Adult Toys ... Boat, copter, and motorized cart

Periodically we were interrupted by noise overhead.

Mid-afternoon, we arrived at the entrance to Fairfield Harbour where our friends Ralph and Diane live.

Entrance to Fairfield Harbour

We wove our way down the channel into Fairfield Harbour, and having been here before, knew a good place to drop anchor. Everything looked good until, during the anchoring process, we heard a grinding noise. The line was not feeding through the windlass. We had 50 feet of chain and about 20 feet of line down when it came to a halt, but that would not suffice for the night.

Finally, after three tries, Clark came up to see what the problem might be. He quickly realized that the issue must be out of sight / under the deck / in the rope locker. Looking in there, he found that the anchor line had tied itself into a very tight knot. He could not untie it by hand and had to get a splicing tool to work the knot out of the line.

Once the knot was removed, Clark proceeded to feed the anchor line out and then we found a big problem - the 3-strand line had been ground up into a 2-stranded, frayed variety.

Since, for this trip, we plan to continue to anchor our way home, this problem had to be addressed asap. Clark quickly got to work fixing the anchor line.

Cutting out the frayed section of anchor line

Separating out the three strands

Trimming off damaged sections

Bad section removed

Two ends spliced together - pull hard to tighten weave

Cut off extra bits with heated blade

Anchor line back in operation

Clark's ability to splice the line did not surprise me as I have seen him do similar work in the past. What amazed me, however, was the speed with which he managed to get a fully-functional repair in place. Now on our shopping list when we get home to NJ ... a new anchor line!

As we prepared to drop our dinghy down for a trip to Ralph's dock, two folks, Lois and Bill, stopped by in their Martini Boat to say hello and introduce themselves. People here are very friendly.

Lois and Bill's Martini Boat docked in Fairfield Harbour

Almost two hours later than we planned, we finally had the dinghy down and made our way over to Ralph's dock to say hello. We sat, at a distance from each other, on their screened porch. Diane had made hors d'oeuvres, so we enjoyed them first. Later, Ralph ordered pizza to be delivered. By the time we left to go back to our boat, I was stuffed!