Southport Marina hosts a daily cruisers meeting where a retired meteorologist named Hank, gives a seasonal/daily briefing on weather and navigation alerts (telling us where the charts are wrong about how deep the water really is!). We are lucky to attend and find out that the near term weather is going to get nasty and now have to figure out where we want to be for a few days to hunker down.
We decide to make the best of the couple/three good days left to make the run up to Beaufort (“Bow-fort” is the North Carolina one, “Bew-ford” is the South Carolina one, even though they’re both named after the same guy, go figure). This involves a couple long cruising days and some logistics as it includes a bridge opening of the Onslow Swing Bridge near Camp Lejune which is known as a frequent place to get held up.
We make good progress and end up anchoring in a bay on the property of Camp Lejune with a dozen other “big” boats. With the winds picking up in front of the upcoming squall, the anchorage is tricky because we all know our boats may swing pretty widely/wildly as the winds and currents change.
We end up in the crowded anchorage near the back of the pack and after anchoring twice and pulling/dragging in the wind we decide to risk getting the attention of the Marines and tie up on their loading dock. We sleep soundly that night knowing we won’t wake up on the rocks and before casting off see a family of river otters who’ve made their home in the seawall.
Arriving in Morehead City we get to experience the oncoming storm as we enter the open waters of Bogue Sound and the final stretch to Morehead City/Beaufort. The marina we were intending to stay at is exposed to the winds and we have a white knuckle experience getting pushed into the dock with the winds in 2 foot rolling swells. The dockmaster, after hearing we are intending to stay through the storm and sleep on the boat recommends we seriously consider moving to the marina on the other side of the peninsula, where it’s more sheltered. After another hair raising experience to get off the rolling docks we make our way to the “quiet” side and calm our nerves with Bloody Mary’s and more oysters. Whew!
The flotilla crowding to make the bridge opening at Onslow Swing Bridge.
Mile Hammock Bay on Camp LeJune
Safe from the rocks and wind, but maybe not the jarheads!
A special meeting with Mr Tunnel, the memory man of Sanitary Seafood!
Tied up safely, the storm sets in!