Beaufort NC USA (Part 1)

We had arrived in the rain and dropped anchor in Taylor Creek at 1125hrs an hour or so before the tide changed.  Though Carol and Steve on Innamorata II assured us that the anchorage was a lot emptier that it had been the previous night, it was still rather full but we managed to shoehorn ourselves into a gap.

An hour or so later, when the tide changed, the gap closed up with us in it!  So we made a hurried departure from there and reanchored about 50m further up the creek in a space that seemed to remain clear of other anchored yachts whichever way the tide was flowing.

A little later, Carol and Steve returned from shopping with Dianne Tetreault, the OCC Port Officer for Beaufort, armed with parcels for us, the first of increasingly many for which Dianne would take delivery on our behalf.  The important items in these packets were a ‘hockey puck’ GPS unit with a USB connection to plug into the Raspberry Pi for running our new Open CPN navigation system and, more critical right now, a number of NMEA 2000 cables and connectors for trying to stabilise the information flow between our navigational instruments of various vintages.

The Black Sheep Bar (which also boasts a wood-fired pizza oven) – a haven from the rain

But all work and no play……  and we had rubbish to get rid of and legs that needed stretching.  Braving a gap in the rain we headed ashore and got as far as the Black Sheep Bar before the rain returned.  So we watched it hammer down from inside in the dry whilst enjoying an excellent Flounder EyePA each, brewed at the microbrewery a few hundred yards away.

Happily for our livers, though not for the microbrewery’s profits, the rain cleared through before we ordered a second round and we returned to BV without a soaking.  In the evening light Taylor Creek was a most attractive sight, particularly so as all the yachts swinging on the tide around us remained far enough clear of us for a peaceful night’s sleep.

The stanchion rebedding project in process

The following day (Wednesday 6 November) the weather was much improved so we attacked one of those jobs that needed doing and which we had tried to ignore for a while.  Back in late October, when we had had the MPS up whilst sailing from Jutland Creek, MD to Carter’s Creek, VA, the spinnaker guy had pressed too hard on one of the stanchions which, in turn, had resulted in 2 of its retaining bolts shearing.  We are in the process of replacing the retaining bolts for all the stanchions as it is clear that many of them are (or were) suffering from crevice corrosion, which is most likely why these ones broke, rather than the stanchion bending (so all in all actually quite a good result!).  Replacing the bolts was pretty much an all-day job due to the difficulty in reaching the retaining nuts and bolts and then in removing the sheared off units, though in relative terms these were quite easy to reach compared to some.  And anything that involves sealant takes longer to deal with than the time you budget and always involves gunge going everywhere.  But the end result looks smart enough and hopefully the bolts will be safe from the ravages of salt water for a few years now.

Views along Taylor Creek to the west (top) and east (bottom)

We celebrated our success with the stanchion with drinks at the Cru Bar and dinner out that evening with Steve and Cindy from Willow whom we had first met at the Sandy Hook anchorage.

Yacht Club ‘head chef’ with his grill

The next day I started on the wind instrument rewiring project whilst Nicky prepared our offering for the pot luck supper at Dianne’s yacht club to which we and the other OCCers had been invited.  This is a regular Thursday night event for the Moorhead and Beaufort Yacht Club and they very kindly allow visiting OCC crews to join in the fun.  We had a lovely evening out meeting many of Dianne’s friends and, of course, sampling a variety of local pot luck favourites.

The OCC crew.  Back row left to right: Nicky, Dianne Tetreault (OCC Port Officer for Beaufort and Morehead City), Reg, Carol and Steve (Innamorata II).  Front row: Cindy and Steve (Willow)

Beaufort, North Carolina, USA