July 2006 Vacation Cruising in Coastal North Carolina
Saturday, July 15th

I started the morning by typing recent blogs on the computer, but the internet available here at Town Creek requires money to connect ($6.00 for an hour pass), so posting will have to wait until a later date. I am cheap, and I am not ashamed to admit it.

Around 10:00, we decided to trust our anchor and head into Beaufort. We rowed across Town Creek and pulled the dingy ashore in a spot where cars pull-off to go fishing off of Hwy 70. After crossing the busy highway, we had a pleasant walk past the historic homes toward the downtown area. We walked the waterfront, then popped in and out of a few stores, mostly purveying the nautical books available here. We reflected on our last trip to Beaufort, almost 1 year ago to the day, when we were just dreaming about buying a boat, and made day-trips on Sundays to "walk the docks."

By noon, we were done with town and headed back to the boat, happy to find her right where we had left her. We spent the afternoon reading and doing a few boat chores. By 5 pm, we decided to clean up and row over to the marina for a drink. Since I had not been to the marina before, we ducked into the marina store first. As we walked in the door, the familiar voice of NOAA came from a TV mounted on the wall in the corner. NOAA was informing us of a band of very strong thunderstorms moving our direction. We decided that being on the boat, rather than at the Tiki bar was a preferable position in this situation. I purchased a bottle of beer from the marina store, just to make the trip in worth it, and had it polished off by the time we got back to Ashiya. With dark clouds on the horizon, we did our best to batten everything down and prepared to ride it out. NOAA did not instill confidence, as he reported storms producing 70 mile-per-hour winds, large hail, and tornado sightings. The winds came first, and turned all the boats in the anchorage 180 degrees. Fortunately, we had plenty of room to swing, and this gave the advantage of pointing our stern toward the channel instead of the marina. The rains came down heavy, but did not last for long. Soon, the skies on the horizon brightened. We had made it through one storm, but NOAA was indicating that another group of storms was tormenting New Bern and was headed our way. We opened up to air things out and kept one eye on the horizon. The guy off of a 50-foot ketch hopped in his dinghy and came over to us with a panicked look in his eyes. He said that he did not like the looks of the skies. Looked like tornado weather to him. I asked if he had been listening to NOAA, and he indicated no. I informed him of the tornado sightings and the second band of storms headed our way. He indicated a laundry list of anchors he had set to hold his 40,000-pound ketch in place and asked if we had a second anchor to put out. When I said no, he suggested that I had made a big mistake and should buy a CQR to supplement my current anchor. Our conversation was cut short by a bolt of lightning on the horizon and a clap of thunder which sent him scurrying back to his own boat. We watched as the second storm skirted past us, delivering nothing more than a few raindrops. NOAA went back to his usual forecasting routine, and we breathed a sigh of relief as the southwest winds swung Ashiya back to her original position. The sun set on what was to be a calm, quiet evening at anchor.