Beaufort, NC

Day 5: Pungo River to Beaufort, NC

On Tuesday, October 12 we had another long day ahead of us if we were to arrive in Beaufort before dark. Therefore we had the anchor up before sunrise and heading down the Pungo River as the sun appeared over the horizon.
We continued to have sunny but cold days.
Entering the Pamlico River we once again had little or no wind to allow sailing on this open portion of the ICW
After the Pamlico River we entered the Neuse River and encountered more traffic both pleasure and commercial, including this off shore trawler, a tug boat pushing a large barge and numerous large powerboats.


Mike proudly displayed a sweatshirt from his favorite customer. As we left the Neuse River and headed down Adams Creek for the Newport River and the town of Beaufort we realized that we once more were under the press of time as the swing bridge at Beaufort opens only on the hour and half hour and does not open from 5:00 PM until 6:00 PM. Therefore we had to make the 4:30 opening or we would have to either cool our keel for two hours or take the long route into Beaufort (around Radio Island).
At 4:00 PM we were still more than 3 nm from the bridge (blue arrow on chart) and we knew it would be close if we were to make the 4:30 opening. As it was we arrived at 4:27 and had to wait only a few minutes for the opening and then entered the Beaufort harbor and berthed Sarah at the Beaufort Town Dock (red arrow on chart). We had hoped to depart Beaufort either Wednesday or Thursday for the ocean sail outside as far as practical - hopefully all the way to Fort Pierce. However the remnants of Tropical Storm Mathew had other plans. By Wednesday the winds were out of the SSE at 15 - 20 kts with thunderstorms threatening. The forecast was for the winds to build and remain out of the south through Friday with gale force winds expected on Friday. That put an ocean sail out of the question for the next few days, it also made traveling further on the ICW pretty undesirable. Therefore we elected to remain in Beaufort until the weather improved, probably until Saturday or even Sunday.


After heavy rain and gale force winds on Friday, Oct 15 we pigged out on $.10 shrimp at Clawson's in Beaufort and prepared to depart the following day.