The air was fresh and the sun was warm as we made our way through Adams creek and along the magenta line (the way the ICW is portrayed on the charts) to Beaufort for some more exploration. The banks of the creek were lined with rushes and reeds - and in some places sand banks. We passed a couple of dredging barges, and a couple more big pieces of equipment laying pipes, as well as shrimp boats with their big arms out to the sides and loops of netting strung around. Whenever we were in open areas we managed to fly our yankee sail and it boosted our speed a good knot.

Since it was Hallowe'en, it seemed only appropriate to go on a ghost walk in Beaufort, so we joined a number of other folks - mostly local - as we walked the streets under the direction of a swashbuckling pirate. He roared at us to stay in line and pay attention as he told us stories of lost sailors, a little girl buried in a keg of rum at sea (to preserve her body till she got back to her mother, don't you know), women murdered by jealous husbands, and of course the most famous of them all - the 13 year old wife of Edward Teach a.k.a Blackbeard - one of his many wives so the story goes. She was, not surprisingly, trying to escape and he didn't approve.

We visited the old burying ground to view that little girl's grave - all heaped with toys - and the story is that the toys get moved around during the night...wooohooo.... The live oak trees spread their branches widely, and it is a much different feeling burying ground from any we have seen before - many trees and bushes - it feels quite dense in there. Believe it or not, our Pirate told us it is considered to be a very romantic place and several weddings have been held there. Interesting locale for a wedding I thought - I wonder what the omens would be for those marriages.

We marched past houses all decorated for Hallowe'en (hardly any real jack o'lanterns though) and swarms of sweet little witches and eerie ghosts and scary monsters going from house to house. One of the best things about that tour was that the arrrgh's and fierce orders of Harvey the pirate could have come out of the mouth of our very own Alex. If I had closed my eyes, I'd have sworn he was with us. Maybe something to consider for your next line of work, Alex??

On Thursday morning, we visited the North Carolina Maritime Museum to see displays of local history and relics from Blackbeard's flagship, Queen Anne's Revenge, which was discovered near here in 1996. It is a well done museum with no admission charge, containing examples of local boats, excellent depictions of the rescue equipment used in the old days along this Graveyard of the Atlantic, and information and displays of all things maritime. We had planned to dinghy along past Carrot Island to see if we could spot any of the feral ponies that roam there and on Shackleford Banks but we ran out of time. They may be descended from horses put overboard by the Spanish, or from shipwrecks along the coast. There seem to be a few theories. It reminded us of the Sable Island ponies in that other Graveyard of the Atlantic off the coast of Nova Scotia.

We anchored in Town Creek at Beaufort - just before the little bridge that allows boaters to continue on down the ICW. Again, there are many familiar boats here as we all travel on and off in the same direction. When we dinghied over to the Beaufort waterfront on Taylor Creek, we saw many more. One thing about this route is that we can all go at our own pace. Some boats seem to prefer the same length of travel days as we do and they keep turning up in the same places. We make some long days and some short ones, depending on the places we want to stop. For us, it is a journey south still, but it is more importantly a journey of discovery all along the way. That is why the stop in Oriental was important, and the stop in Beaufort. We'll make another short day today to Swansboro, but for a different reason.

We're keeping a close eye on Noel - the tropical storm - that is working its way up the coast. (For all you weather watchers, we really like the www.wunderground.com site). We want to be safely tucked away when it passes by so we have booked a couple of nights at Casper's marina. Once the storm has passed, we'll travel some long days to mark off some more miles on the chart. There are more places ahead to be seen and savoured.