Cruise Summary

This blog is my journal for an 11 day cruise from Albemarle Plantation, Hertford, NC down the inland waterway to Beaufort, NC. and calling on various ports of call along the way.

My First Mate for the trip was my neighbor, Buck Walker. We took the trip in mid-Oct but I just got around to integrating the photos and posting the blog.

We tried 3 new anchorages and 2 new marinas this trip and I'd use them all again. I took screen shots of my chartplotter for the route into each anchorage so you can see what we did. You can also get the GPS coordinates from the shots so that you could easily find the anchorages for yourself.

Marc asked me to rate the restaurants so here they are on a 5 point scale. We ate at 3 and the rest of the time cooked on-board.

• Back Bay Cafe, Belhaven - 2.5 (lunch better than dinner)
• Aqua, Beaufort - 5.0
• Spouter's Inn, Beaufort - 4.0

If you'd like to see satellite images of our ports of call, I've programmed them onto a Google Map titled: Fall Southern Cruise Oct 07.

Google Maps allows you to zoom the map and to integrate satellite photos. The link is below. Try playing with the system. It is really amazing. Send me a note if you have problems and I’ll talk you through it….

http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?ie=UTF8&hl=en&msa=0&msid=107432145428580962111.00043cea018e8844d0b26&t=h&om=0&ll=35.406961,-76.35498&spn=1.696798,4.520874&z=8

Day 1: 10/11/07 Home – Manteo (44 miles)

We finished loading our perishable provisions onto my 32’ Nimble motorsailer, 2-TAC-E, before daylight on this beautiful October morning so that we could be sure to meet our 0800 rendezvous with Marc and Cam Rivard and their 34’ Catalina, First Light, off the Albemarle Plantation Marina.
Buck and I cast off at 0745 to a bon voyage from Chris and our NJ friends, Al & Carole Fraser, who had been visiting for a few days. First Light was waiting as planned and we headed out of the channel together. As soon as we cleared the channel, both boats came into the wind and hoisted our sails. The wind was brisk at 15-20 knots from the northwest.

Given that our course to Manteo was southeast, this made for a very comfortable sail.

We were able to sail all the way to Manteo on a single tack at 5-7 knots. The entire voyage of 40+ miles took about 7 hours including navigation of the Currituck and Manteo channels.

I had called ahead several days ago for reservations at the Manteo Waterfront Marina. It was good that I did as they were full. Both boats were also lucky enough to be assigned to tie up along side long face docks. Tie-up was easy with the assistance of the knowledgeable and friendly Manteo Dock staff: the Dockmaster Carl and his assistant, George.

If you haven’t been to Manteo, it’s worth a trip. Manteo is the only town on Roanoke Island, site of the early “Lost Colony.” There are several nice restaurants and shops, and it’s close to the Outer Banks if you’re coming by car. If coming by boat you have a choice of the Manteo Waterfront Marina or Shallowbag Bay. I would avoid Shallowbag Bay as they have little interest in transient boaters these days and would prefer to focus on their condos.

Our marina was directly across the channel from the home-port of the Elizabeth II, a reproduction of the vessel which brought the lost colonists to Roanoke Island.

It is a beautiful ship.

Marc and Cam also caught up with the E II sailing to Columbia for a festival on their way home and were able to share these images of her under sail. I'm sorry I missed it!

After securing our boats, Buck and I took a walk to the grocery store to pick up the inevitable couple of items that we forgot to pack (chips, cream cheese, & salad greens). When we returned, Marc and Cam joined us onboard 2 TAC – E for cocktails and appetizers, then we adjourned to First Light for a tasty dinner of home-made tomato soup, shrimp salad, marinated veggies and Chris’ banana bread.

Had we been so inclined, we could have made some money when we arrived at Manteo. No sooner had we tied up than we were approached by several couples who said they were ready for their sunset harbor cruise. They said they had been told to look for a green-hulled sailboat with red sails. We soon figured out that they were really looking for the Down-east Rover, a large steel-hulled, gaff rigged schooner that was docked close to us. Had I realized at the time, that the Rover charged $40/head for a 1.5 hour cruise, we would have taken them all for a sail.

Buck and I hit our bunks by 2130 and spent a relatively peaceful night aside from our fenders squeaking against the hull as the wind rose overnight.

Day 2 10/12/07 Manteo – Upper Alligator River (40 miles)

Now that the nights are longer, we don’t tend to get up quite as early, but we had the coffee brewing by 0630. We listened to weather radio first thing. Winds were projected to be 10-15 knots NW early in the day, which would be right on our nose, so we did not hurry to cast off. I took a short walk and then fixed an early brunch of corned beef hash, shired eggs, tomatoes, and whole grain baguettes.

We had noticed the day before that my windshield wiper blade was delaminating, so after brunch, I walked to the auto parts store to see if I could get a replacement. The blade is only 12” long and is hard to find. I was lucky enough to find cut-to-fit blades at the auto store and they even mounted the blade for me. I came away with the new blade and 2 more spares for $11. My guess is that this was probably 25% of what I would have had to pay at a marine store.

We finally cast off at 1000. Marc and Cam decided to remain for another day as they would have had the winds and resulting waves on their nose for the entire 40 mile trip home. We would only have to put up with it for about 18 miles.

Manteo is on the eastern side of Roanoke Island. Once we rounded the shelter of Roanoke Island heading west back up the Albemarle Sound, we encountered the full effect of wind and waves. As projected they were on our nose which meant there was no way we could sail. Waves averaged 2-3 feet with occasional 3-4 footers, so it was very bumpy. I first took it very slowly at 3-5 knots, but soon found that we cut the waves better at 6+ knots although I had to keep a hand on the throttle constantly to slow us for the bigger waves so that we wouldn’t pound excessively. The waves threw water all the way over the boat, so Buck and I were very appreciative of being able to steer the boat from inside the cabin where we were snug and dry. Marc and Cam made the right decision to stay another day as they would have been wet for their entire voyage.

We made it to the Alligator River Bridge by 1430; passed through it and into the calm protected waters of the river heading southbound with very few other boats. My guess is that most boats didn’t want to try the Albemarle Sound when it was that rough.

The last 2 times we’ve traversed the Alligator, I’ve anchored out at the big bend where the river turns west before the Pungo Canal. This trip we decided to try something different. We anchored up a waterway called “The Straits” about 5 miles further north off the west side of the river. You cannot see the Straits at all from the middle of the river and the entrance is very tricky. I would not attempt it without a chart plotter and someone on the bow to watch for the very plentiful snags. I would also suggest that you read Clairborne Young’s description in Cruising North Carolina.

We wove our way slowly through the snags at about 3 knots until we reached a deep channel. We went upstream about ½ a mile and anchored off Lyon’s Point in 16 feet of water. Even entering the channel we never had less than 7 feet of depth.

This is a very protected anchorage from all points of wind, and I would highly recommend it. The only situation in which I wouldn’t attempt it is if there were large waves on the Alligator that might mask the snags at the entrance. We were the only boat there overnight.

Once we dropped anchor about 1630, we secured the boat and relaxed in the cockpit with our cocktails, then I prepared an easy dinner of chicken quesadillas using some roast chicken that Buck had prepared for the trip.

We watched a large, white egret fishing until dark and hit our bunks soon there-after.

I think I read for a few minutes, but dealing with the rough water earlier in the day had really tired me out.

Day 3: 10/13/07 Alligator River – Belhaven (46 miles)

We were awakened at daybreak by a bass boat zooming up the channel. Both the helmsman and passenger wore full coverage motorcycle type helmets that matched the boat. Bass fishing ala NASCAR….

After a quick breakfast of cantaloupe, toast and coffee, we were ready to up anchor. The bottom was that nasty black clay and Buck had a lot of fun cleaning the anchor and deck. We had to finish the job in port later.

We were able to retrace our route out through the channel with no problems and headed south where we intercepted the Alligator-Pungo Canal. This is a 22 mile stretch that joins the Alligator and Pungo rivers.

We emerged from the canal about 1 PM and headed for Belhaven. We decided to check out a new marina. On previous trips, we’ve stayed at Dowry Creek and at River Forest; this time we decided to check out the Belhaven Waterway Marina which is just past day-marker #9 inside the Belhaven breakwater. I’m glad we did. This is a small marina with a 200’ face dock and about 10 additional slips. We arrived about 1400 and were on the face dock which was great. They have good permanent fenders in place and were ready with assistance when we arrived. The marina has everything except fuel which is readily available from River Forest less than ¼ mile away. Les and Brenda Porter are great folks and they have a sweet miniature schnauzer named Marina. Their bathrooms are worth the trip, beautifully decorated with navy memorabilia, and furnished with fresh towels and toiletries. The marina is located in the middle of downtown Belhaven and within an easy walk of several restaurants and stores.

When we were in Belhaven last spring, we saw a new restaurant attached to a wine and gourmet shop called the Back Bay Cafe. It was closed for our last visit, but open this time. We made reservations upon our arrival and then spent the afternoon doing routine boat maintenance. We had an 1830 reservation and walked over from our slip which was less than 5 minutes away. The dinner started off great with an $11 bottle of red zinfandel which was very drinkable. Our meal, however, was less than stellar as both our entrees were overdone and the sides not very good. We decided that Chez 2-TAC-E serves better cuisine at a far more reasonable rate.

Back at the boat, we chatted for awhile then drifted into the arms of Morpheus.

Day 4: 10/14/07 Belhaven – Oriental (49 miles)

After a delicious breakfast of smoked trout, cream cheese, capers and boiled eggs with Bavarian sweet mustard on whole grain toast, we cast off at 0800 and headed south toward one of our favorite destinations: Oriental. Seas were calm so we had to rely on motor power once again.

We cruised down the Pungo River to its confluence with the Pamlico River admiring the huge houses on the western bank, crossed the Pamlico up Goose Creek and through the Hobucken canal past the Coast Guard station and a bunch of shrimp boats. This is prime shrimping season and we saw many shrimp boats of all sizes either pulling their nets or heading out to deeper waters. From the canal we emerged into Bay River and then downstream until it met the mighty Neuse River. We then motored up the Neuse to Oriental.

In Oriental Buck and I enjoy staying at the Oriental Inn and Marina. This is a well run small marina tucked right behind the Oriental breakwater and between large shrimp and fish processing plants. It has fuel, good showers with towels and toiletries, a decent restaurant and an outdoor tiki bar where are the locals gather. There is also a good coffee shop across the street and a marine store within a block.

Immediately after tying up, Buck and I headed for the marine store as my chart-plotter chip did not go any further south than the Neuse River. Given that we planned to head further south to Beaufort and given that that the channels into Beaufort are quite tricky, I wanted to get a chip (The chip has electronic charts of an area which are displayed on the chart-plotter with your current satellite verified location of your boat supered on the chart.) which included Beaufort. The store did not carry the chip, but was nice enough to call the local West Marine for me. After determining that West Marine had the chip, the store loaned me a bike for the 3 mile trip to West Marine. After purchasing the chip and a 6-pack of beer at the grocery I biked back to the marina and installed the chip. I breathed a sigh of relief when it installed correctly.

Given our experience with the restaurant in Belhaven, we decided to dine on board today.

I slow cooked a pasta sauce with a base of Newman’s Own Italian sausage and pepper tomato sauce to which I added a couple of chopped-up leftover pieces of meatloaf, and sautéed peppers, onions, garlic and scotch bonnet hot pepper sauce. After this simmered for an hour, I started the pasta. While the pasta boiled, I added a lb. of mussels to the sauce. Believe it or not the entire concoction tasted wonderful and we stuffed ourselves, accompanying the pasta with a glass or 2 of Spanish red wine straight from the box.

We ate our meal at the table in the cockpit (it's hard getting Buck to dress for dinner!) and spent an hour or so people watching before retiring for the evening.

I sure am happy that Buck has dish washing duty on board….

Day 5: 10/15/07 Oriental – New Bern (28 miles)

We had originally planned to head directly to Beaufort form Oriental, but we decided to take a detour up the Neuse River to New Bern, since neither of us had ever approached it from the water. After breaking our fast with cereal and bananas (and a cinnamon bear-claw pastry for me), we backed out of our slip in a much more professional way than the last time we were here (of course I didn’t have a 20 knot onshore wind this time…but who’s counting anyway).

A pod of dolphins cavorted about 20 feet off the port side of the boat as we cleared the harbor.

We had a 5-7 knot wind from the east, so we hoisted sail as soon as we cleared the harbor and, since we were heading generally west/northwest, had a great sail with the winds behind us although they weren’t nearly as strong as those we had on the way to Manteo. The winds were enough to push us at 4+ knots all the way up the river.

Part of the way we were able to sail “wing-on-wing.” For you land-lubbers in the reading audience, that’s when the main sail is on one side of the boat and the jib is on the other side, giving the appearance that the boat has “wings.” I jury rigged my boathook to act as a whisker pole to hold out the jib. I also rigged a “preventer” on the boom to prevent accidental jibes.

When the channel narrowed before New Bern, we dropped our sails and motored under the highway bridges (65 ft clearance) and through the bascule bridge (draw-bridge) which is locked open and appears to be in the process of being demolished or redone.

Buck and I watched a huge crane pulling 50 ft pilings up like soda straws then stacking them on a barge like cord-wood.

Buck had called ahead to the Sheraton Hotel and Marina to book us a slip. This facility has now changed its name to the Skysail Marina, although they will still answer radio call for Sheraton Marina. This is a large marina with beautiful floating docks, although Buck and I were very surprised by the bathrooms. They have over 200 slips, but only one men’s toilet and no urinal.

Be advised that of 1 Dec 07, this marina is more than doubling its transient rates from $1.25 to $2.50 at foot with a 40 foot minimum. This means that my slip fee would go from $40. to $100 per night; I don’t think so! They are going to lose a lot of business.

The marina is very centrally located in downtown New Bern, and Buck and I spent a couple of hours meandering around downtown. They have really done a lot to spruce up the town since I was last here in 1997. It has a lot of nice shops and restaurants and a lot of condos are being built.

Given that we had eaten so heavily the night before, I decided to fix a light meal onboard tonight. We had a mixed grill of lamb chops and filet mignon with a cabernet pan sauce, garlic mashed potatoes and a tossed salad….cholesterol heaven….Amazingly enough we both slept like logs... after licking our plates.

Day 6: 10/16/07 New Bern – Beaufort (50 miles)

Each day one of the first things we do is to listen to the marine weather radio broadcast for our area. Our VHF radio has several channels devoted to these broadcasts. Weather forecast for today was sunny, mid-70’s and winds once again from the east. As we would be reversing our course back down the Neuse River today, this meant that the lovely sailing wind we had yesterday would be on our nose today. The sails will have to say in their covers.

I took a walk, then we had breakfast and cast off about 0800. We tend to get started a bit later on fall cruises as it gets light so much later than in the spring. The light was lovely on the highway bridge as we headed back down the river.

Motoring back down the river we were surprised at the amount of development on the banks of the Neuse. There were houses almost all the way from New Bern to Oriental. Some of them were really immense. Why does anyone need a 20,000 sq. ft. house?

We arrived back at the ICW (Intercoastal Waterway) about 1130 and turned right southbound down Adams Creek. Adams Creek then intersects with the Adams Creek Canal which dumps you into the Newport River.

Dredges were hard at work trying to keep the channel deep enough for all traffic.

After a few miles you leave the main channel and twist and turn dodging shallows for a while as you approach Beaufort. The cruising guide does a pretty good job of explaining the channel, but I was very very happy that I got the Beaufort chip for my chart-plotter.

As you can see from this screen shot from the paper chart, there is a lot of information to sort out.

It is much easier when you can zoom in on the electronic version on the chartplotter.

The guide doesn’t do as good a job of clarifying bridge opening times for the bascule highway bridge as you enter Beaufort. This bridge only opens on the hour and half hour from 0800 until 1630, and then at 1730 and 1830. We were lucky in that we hit the bridge at 1440, but the bridge tender had not had a 1430 opening and was willing to open for us, even though he gently chided us for being “a bit late.”

We then turned up Taylor Creek and I hailed the Beaufort Waterfront Docks on the radio to request my slip assignment.

They told us to turn into the fairway immediately beyond a motor boat named Dani and they would guide us in. I wasn’t sure I’d be able to read a boat’s name as I approached, but I didn’t have to worry; Dani was a 100 ft+ triple deck motor-yacht, one of at least ½ a dozen in the marina. Dani was spelled out in 4 ft high letters along her side.

The dock help guided us to our slip in the marina, and I once more managed to avoid embarrassing myself with my boat handling skills. Several more mega-yachts came in after we did. It’s amazing to watch the professional captains maneuver these huge vessels. They all have bow and stern thrusters, which are small water jets that push a large volume of water sideways and tremendously enhance maneuverability. They basically come along side where they are to dock and then the thrusters move the boat sideways into their slip. The boat can also turn within its own length. We talked to the captain of one of the smaller mega-yachts as he was refueling. He took on 1,500 gallons (about a ¼ tank), and he also filled up the day before in Norfolk. Compare that to our cruising for a week and using 40 gallons.

After making the boat secure, we took on fuel and then Buck washed the boat while I did some other maintenance. We then walked around Beaufort, which is a very quaint town and one that our wives would also enjoy.

Rosemary Smith had recommended a restaurant named Aqua so we made reservations there for dinner. Unlike our Belhaven restaurant experience, Aqua was delightful. They have a combination of small plates/tapas and larger plates. We were lucky in that they were doing a 2 for 1 special on large plates. We started off splitting a “bento box” with seared tuna, spring rolls, seaweed salad and calamari. We then shared their version of a Caesar salad in which they provided all the ingredients artfully arranged on a plate and you mixed it yourself. Both first courses were creatively presented and delicious. We then shared pan-seared scallops on fettuccini and a sautéed grouper with mashed potatoes. We finished the meal by sharing an order of bananas foster. We would both highly recommend this restaurant for excellent food, good service and reasonable prices.