This blog is about the voyages of the fine ship Cour Volant. Ok, ship may be a streach but in the nice flyer the previous owners gave me, telling me about the name, it said 'Capt. Henry Morgan stole the fine ship Cour Volant' from the unfortunate French Navy. So I'll go with it. Her current home is in Oriental North Carolina and we are cruising in our home waters this summer.
North Carolina has cruising grounds that rival any place I've sailed. Many places are almost untouched by modern civilization and lend themselves to peaceful anchorages and quiet walks on the beach.
One of our favorite places is the bite of Cape Lookout. Only 7km from Beaufort Inlet lies a truly wonderful place. White sand beaches, torquise waters, sea turtles, dolphins, the lighthouse, and a very protected anchorage. The Caribbean? no North Carolina!
We arrived at the bite after a moonlit sail around 11pm Friday and woke up to good coffee and that torquoise water. The Neuse River near Oriental has been plagued with Jelly fish, but there were none at Lookout so we spent most of the day swimming and floating in the water. The Lagerhead Sea Turtles were also out for a swim and I got a few photos, but they somewhat look like the lach ness monster.
Saturday evening a few friends arrived in their boats and Sunday we spent the day doing almost nothing on the beach but watching the sand crabs and the waves roll in. The anchorage by the Lighthouse itself,usually used by smaller boats, was pretty crouded for Lookout. There must have been 15 to 20 small powerboats and their famlies having picknics on the beach. A few beach buggies dotted the north side and there were, as always, lines of white pvc pole holders and 'spider silk' lines cast in the water.
Sunday afternoon we recieved a nice little squall with 40+knt winds for about 1/2 an hour. But by 5pm the whole anchorage was glassy smooth and nicely cooled down by the rain.