Since a coffee shop faced our dock at Beaufort and opened at 7am, we decided to skip home-brewed and grab 2 cups quickly before taking off at sunrise (7am). But, there was a line, and the barista was in training, so we left the shop instead of waiting, as we needed to ready the boat. The coffee shop manager saw us go, and said “coffee will be up soon!” We thanked him, but stated we had to get going, no problem, and went back to C Ghost, reeled up the power cord, and readied the lines, started the engine, etc. Just before we were ready to cast off, the manager ran down to us with two (complimentary!) large coffees. Talk about Southern Hospitality!
Many large and small fishing boats dashed down the channel towards the sea and side creeks off the ICW as we departed. Many eschewed boats altogether and waded into the surf. The surroundings were marshy and grassy, and very shallow off the ICW.
The wildlife also became more diverse, still lots of gulls, terms, and cormorants, but now we saw herons, kingfishers, some white egrets, more osprey, and brown pelicans.
We passed under the fixed Emerald Isle bridge (Paula’s first time piloting under a 65-footer) and cooled our heels for 25 minutes with three other vessels waiting for the Onslow Beach bridge to open on the half hour. Intermittent swift currents and very narrow channel with sharp shoals on each sides kept this long straight stretch from being boring.
Last night, Tom called Camp Lejeune, and was told that there were no firing on exercises that would impact ICW traffic. However, that didn’t mean they weren’t firing at all. As we approached, we heard numerous percussive booms of what we assumed was heavy artillery fire. They could both be heard and felt, and the poor doggy on the blue-hulled cabin cruiser behind us barked loudly every time a volley was heard.
By now we had gone 40+ miles, and decided to anchor at Mile Hammock Bay, which is a public anchorage within Camp Lejeune. It is actually quite pretty and there are a number of boats here already. We do hear distant heavy artillery and are buzzed by the occasional large helicopter in addition to the numerous birds listed above. We have not seen any armed gunboats, but we’ve been told they sometimes patrol.
The cruising guide warned us about two trouble spots we would encounter during today’s trip because of shoaling at both Bogue inlet and Brown’s inlet. Since we got to both of these places near high tide, we didn’t have any problem. There was one spot around mile 212 however where the depth was 8′ for about a quarter mile stretch.
Right now it is breezy and warm, with late afternoon sun. The wind should die down after supper, which is re-warmed turkey cutlet picatta with capers, and an assortment of left over vegetables and regular and sweet potato fries-the last two courtesy of doggy bags from our restaurant meals.
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I remember that part of the ICW very well too! Camp Lejeune made us all nervous. Something about the possibility of heavy artillery flying over your boat… No big deal, right? Hahaha!