Polar Bear V, our boat buddies from Mimico left on Monday and were planning on going through the dismal swamp which is too shallow for us to travel. With new solar panels finally in hand we untied from the dock in Hampton at 6 o’clock on Tuesday morning to start our first leg of the ICW. This was leg that I did on Manatee II back in 2002. Having had done this leg I could still remember the stops that we made on our way to Beaufort, North Carolina. The tentative plan was to spend the first night at Pungo Ferry Marina. We arrived there just before sundown only to find out that the marina was closed, but the dock was still there. Everything else was boarded up. Doing what any smart sailor would do was to just tie up and take advantage of a freebie. There was also another boat from Germany that did the same. We were up early the next morning heading to a place called Coinjack as we were planning on reconnecting with Polar Bear V the following day. This was a very short leg and not really anything very memorable about the stay there other then it was expensive. The following day we met up with Polar Bear at the Alligator River and just before dark we anchored in Tuckahoe Point. Once anchored another boat came by and told us that we should probably move as the tugs come through this area with barges at night and we could be a risk of getting hit by one. Needless to say, we pulled anchored and moved…not a single boat came through the sound that night. The next stop was to be the famous Mayo Company in Hoboken, North Carolina. Anyone that knows Randy Clarke can ask him his thoughts on this spot. We spent two nights there as the weather forecast was not very good for the next few days and who can remember that last time they paid .40 a foot to dock including hydro. The place is basically a fishing dock and the docks are not in the best shape. They had just reopened the week before as they had major damage there from Hurricane Irene. The building was in five feet of water. They did however have shrimp, scallops and flounder for sale and amazing prices which we took advantage of. On November 6th we left the docks and were now on our way to Beaufort which is a stopping spot for many boats heading out on to the ocean for the BVI’s. All kinds of boaters were telling us that we needed to be very careful when going under the Wilkerson Bridge as it was reported that the bridge clearance was only 64 feet instead of the standard 65 foot bridge clearance on the ICW. We had removed everything from the top of the mast other than the VHF antenna and it was a good thing that we did because the antenna did ping the underside of the bridge. We arrived early in Beaufort that day and were greeted by another one of our boat buddies that we met in Sodus Bay. The plan was to have some stuff shipped to us for the solar panels which did not arrive with the original order. Surprise we did not get it. After a few days of running around looking for parts and waiting for a weather window to start our next leg of our voyage we came to the decision that if we waited for all the stuff to arrive we would never leave. This place is also known as the Beauzone…people get stuck here and never leave. After checking out all of the bars, grocery stores and marine stores, it was decision time…inside or outside. As it turns out there was a great weather window for the outside and everyone we had talked to said the inside would be a problem with our draft as the ICW is not maintained by either the state of North Carolina or South Carolina from Beaufort to Charleston. So outside we went …on to the big blue ocean for an 240 mile run at maybe 6 knots average speed.