Sailing On Grace

11/20/15 Friday

Now how did that happen? November 20!!, One week until Thanksgiving, not even. And, Sharyl Webster's birthday!! And the winter season!!! Goodness, time flies when I'm having fun, clearly.

David and I woke up as a simple duet this morning, well a trio with Amelia but no house/boat guests. We managed. We agreed that a goal of leaving Beaufort by 10 AM was reasonable. I did laundry and even managed sun salutes on the dock. David went to get a boat part and cat food. Arriving back at the boat separately we did various "get ready to go" tasks - empty the dinghy of water and stuff, add fuel, make coffee of course, stow gear, reassure Amelia. A last walk down the boardwalk w/laundry. All good and off we went.

Decorated for Christmas

Goodbye Beaufort

I totally enjoyed my Beaufort time. Still have romantic attachment to the place with its little houses (and big houses) in the historic, downtown districk, houses packed close for warmth but am pretty confident I don't want to live there - vacation there, sure, but too cold in the winter. But I do like the size and being on the water and really close to the ocean. We got out of our slip around 10:45 and found our way back into the ICW with only a few short minutes of snarkiness toward each other, due to stress and fear as we renew our knowledge of charts and pathways and boat.

goodbye slipmates

After we read our various charts - paper and electronic- and spied the Atlantic Beach Bridge both of us relaxed. Two sailboats ahead of us were playing catch with each other. Good sailors but we needed to pass them so we did. We really felt we were on our way again when we went under the Atlantic Beach bridge.

Not very interesting bridge but it DOES lead to Alantic Beach and the ocean.

The day of motoring was fun. We put up the ginny and did some "sail assist" motoring. Some of the time we were 20 yds from th starboard (right) shore and the same from the port shore which was a sandbar. I wonder if they dump the sand from digging the canal to make the sandbar. After passing farther down the ICW we were really surrounded with lowlands and marsh grass as well as the little sandbars. I love the marshes and lowlands . Only one of many photos displayed here.

I like the repeating layers of water/land/water/land

We stopped very briefly in Swansboro to pick up ice...for drinks later on, then continued on to Goose Creek where we've anchored for the night. It is very near Camp Lejeune (Marine base) so there are some planes overhead and explosions heard, occassionally.