I was reviewing our plans for departure in the early morning hours when I realized that we had not accounted for the fierce tide we were going to encounter going up the Cape Fear river in the morning. At its peak we would be fighting a 3.5 knot current, when our typical speed is about 6.5 knots. We needed to leave much earlier to miss this, so before the sun was up I was making our preparations.
Heather did a great job pulling away from the T-head. We were on the fuel dock for some diesel and a pump out in no time. We did this about 7a, just when they opened, and were off with two new bags of ice by about 7:30a, but the tide had already turned. We were only fighting a half knot current just now, but it was going to get worse fast. We ran the engine as hard as we had all year to race up to the cut out off the river and the engine did really well. By the time we made the cut the current was already about 1.5 knots against us, so we just made it.
We tried to get into Surf City Topsail marina but it was already booked full. Since we had gotten such an early start we could make it farther than I had planned, our longest day so far this year. We made it all the way to Mile Hammock bay, which is just off Camp Lejeune. My youngest sister was a guest here a long time ago. We saw ospreys on the way here, and at the camp I saw an Osprey, the tilt rotor kind, for the first time in person. It was doing some sort of touch and go exercise, over and over again.
It was a tough spot to anchor and already pretty full. One boat was leaving, having given up in disgust. It took us three tries to get the anchor to bite at a good spot between the seven boats already there, and I took a very long time to set it. I wasn't sure we were really stuck until about 4a when the wind shifted, so a pretty restless night.
In the morning when I first stuck my head up outside half the boats were already gone, and one or two more were in the process. We were the second to last to leave. Heather casually asked if there were any talking bridges. This is Heather-speak for an opening bridge that we have to talk to on the radio to get them to open. Oops, there was one just a few miles down. It opened only on the hour and the half, and they tolerated no slackers, the bridge being run by the Marines themselves.
We poured on the coals again, and again the engine did well. We just made the opening with a minute to spare.
We adopted a slower pace after that since we weren't in a huge hurry, having made so many miles the day before. The engine had run almost thirteen hours yesterday. We made it to Beaufort ("BoFort") and after some confusion on where to go, Heather smoothly did a 270° turn into the little basin and our slip, under the admiration of at least three guys who were initially watching quite skeptically.
Beaufort is a cute little town right up against the waterfront.
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