Tuesday, May 12, 2009

It was a nice quiet night - totally unlike the last time we were here. No maneuvers last night so we were able to get some sleep. We left Mile Hammock about 8:14am. We were next to the last boat to leave. Most of the boats left at sunup. I heard one boat warning another of a shallow area on the waterway where the mid-channel was 7 ft at Brown's Inlet. This must have been about mid-tide (low tide was around 4am). We hit this spot on a rising tide (high tide is about 10:15am here) with about 10 ft of water, so hey we didn't run aground today at all.

We slid past Camp Lejeune with no closures today - it was nice that we didn't have to wait for the live fire to end this trip (no shooting at us LOL). It's definitely cooler out today. Yesterday and today are the first days in a long time where I've worn sweats. High temps today in the 60s/70s and lows last night about 52. Today was pretty uneventful but with all the shoals along this stretch we were on high alert all day.

I saw my first two Canada geese (since last fall) today on the water, then 12 after that on someone's lawn (LOL). They really are a welcome, pretty sight. I wonder if they're all over the place at home. They like to raid the cherries and mulberries and sleep on the lawn and the lot next to us. They're amazingly smart birds that are very protective of their goslings and always a welcome sign of warmer weather working it's way to us back home.

Pulling into Taylor Creek in Beaufort NC the current is running about 2 knots. There are mooring balls all over but they're all private. Boats are anchored in between the moorings and in the channel too. It's kind of crazy. We circled several times, tried to p.u. a mooring only be told THAT'S PRIVATE PROPERTY when I called across to another boat to see if it was a rental. THERE ARE NO RENTAL MOORINGS HERE! Oops... drop that sucker like it's poison... we're now anchored between Green day markers 7 and 9 right on the border of the channel. I called Town Creek Marina to see if we could get in there tomorrow because the water there looks pretty shallow. I've heard really nice things about them and am looking forward to visiting them tomorrow. She was really nice on the phone and they give discounts to Boat US members for dockage fees and discounts on Diesel/Gas prices too ($.10/gallon).

Time to go and think about dinner... then post some blogs. Looks like the end of April was my last online entry (wow - what a slacker aye?).

Looking across at the marsh area - I keep looking for some of the Shackleford Horses but haven't seen any. They're feral horses/ponies that may be descendants of the conquistadors or from shipwrecks that graze on the salt marsh cordgrass. I haven't seen any, though I know that they're here...