Arrrrrr!

We are downbound on the Pamlico River, bound for the ICW and Belhaven, North Carolina. We had a pleasant few days up the Pamlico and got to spend some time with good friends, but now we need to be moving along to our next scheduled stop.

Vector dominating the T-head at the State Dock in Bath, NC. We stick out on both ends.

The remainder of our offshore passage was uneventful. I turned off the Ocean Data on the Starlink after we crossed the territorial limit, and we made Beaufort Inlet at close to max flood. We had the anchor down in a familiar spot off Fort Macon and the Coast Guard station (map) by 8:15 and enjoyed a well-earned beer.

Catching the sunset just as we arrive to Beaufort Inlet.

Tuesday morning after we were well-rested we moved just a mile and a half to a new anchorage for us, just south of Sugar Loaf Island in Morehead City (map). I had an Amazon delivery at the counter in town, and we figured to just spend the night here rather than dinghy over from Fort Macon and then move Vector to Beaufort, where we expected the anchorage to be quite busy.

The brew pub is still here.

For reasons unknown the NOAA tide station right at the Morehead City waterfront is just plain wrong, reporting that we were making our entry at low tide when it fact it was close to high. We've made a note to use the other two nearby stations instead when planning an arrival here. We had plenty of water in our chosen spot, so it was not an issue.

Tower 7 now on the Morehead waterfront. Jacks behind it.

We splashed the tender and I headed ashore to the free public dock and walked across the street to the nice chandlery where the Amazon counter was located. I picked up my package and then had a bit of a walk around town to reacquaint myself. I was pleased to find Tower 7 Baja Grill, a favorite of ours in Wrightsville Beach, has come in where the Ruddy Duck folded a couple of years ago, and that there were still a half dozen decent eateries in town. I ended at the mini mart for a half gallon of milk before heading home.

I never remember there is a nice Italian place in town until I run into it on my walk.

I was extremely disappointed to find they had sent me yet another 36v solenoid in a 24v box, again acing me out of finishing the charging system for the start battery. Giving up on this vendor, I went back to Amazon to find an alternate product on fast delivery, and this time I settled on a 12v model. I spent the next hour or so in the engine room rewiring the work I had already done to accommodate the change.

King Neptune on the dock at the Olympus Dive Center.

Afterwards I went back ashore for another walk, stumbled into a barber shop that I sorely needed, and after strolling the west end of town I crossed over for a quick walk on Sugar Loaf before heading home. I picked up Louise and we headed right back ashore for dinner at Tower 7, since we had missed it this pass in Wrightsville, landing at their own dock. It was decent but we both thought the other location was better. Lots of other choices in this town, too. We finished with a little stroll around town.

Dueling Piano bar, Morehead City.

Wednesday morning we weighed after the turn of the tide and had a decent push all the way to the Neuse. The Neuse was calm and we had a nice run all the way to Hobucken. Knowing we would be at the docks in Washington for a couple of days, I started calling divers; here in the calm water with virtually no tidal current I could really feel how much the marine growth was slowing us down. Right after passing under the Hobucken bridge we passed our old friend, the tug Pamlico, pushing yet another load of phosphate.

Passing Pamlico on one whistle in front of the Hobucken Coast Guard station.

We made the next possible right turn into Eastham Creek, a new spot for us, and dropped the hook in the only spot we could find that was free of pot floats yet not right in the middle of the channel (map). I grilled a nice steak for dinner. We saw only one other boat in the creek, maybe ¾ mile from us, and we had one of the darkest, quietest nights in some time. I went out in the evening to marvel at the stars.

A scooterist after my own heart, with a large succulent on the floorboards. We carry stuff this way all the time.

Thursday was a calm day on the Pamlico and we had a pleasant run upriver to Washington, which around here is known as Little Washington (to distinguish it from DC) or, as they like to tell the tourists, the original Washington, named for the President in 1776. We tied up at a spot along the free dock (map) after first running aground a hundred feet further west on the same face dock. Stacey and Dave met us on the dock, and dockmaster George and his wife Diana came by a short time later to say hello.

Vector in the anchorage as seen from Sugar Loaf Island.

We spent two nights on the free dock, the limit, and then moved over to a T-head with water and power for the next two nights (map). We needed the water and power anyway to get the laundry done and top off the tanks. I had figured to take one night, for a three-night stay, but the earliest the diver could get to us was Monday morning, and so we made it a more comfortable two. George put us on the same T-head with Stinkpot, where we had to back our swim step to about 18" from theirs, and our bow still stuck out 12' past the end of the dock.

The Washington dockmaster posted this photo of Vector with Stinkpot in the background. Photo: George Wunschel

It rained on and off for our entire stay, and when it was not raining it was muggy. We were glad to have the power for the AC during the worst of it, and we had to run the gen a bit to charge batteries at the free dock. The waterfront becomes something of a river when it rains, and one night coming back from dinner we had to wade through about three inches to get back to the dock.

Urban renewal, in the form of nice brick sidewalks everywhere, truncated this terrazzo business name, which outlived the business itself.

The rain kept us from offloading the scooters to get into the suburban shopping district, but we did get a Walmart delivery to restock the provisions. We also got our mail and a few Amazon deliveries by way of the office. I managed to walk every day in the gaps in the rain, usually with Dave and sometimes Stacey and Louise. Since our last visit they have completed the connection from the waterfront dock area to the raised boardwalk downriver of the North Carolina Estuarium.

I always love seeing this theater marquee in the evening.

Across the four nights we ate at some familiar venues: Down on Main Street, Fat Cats, and Ribeyes, and one night we had take-out from Angi's Mexican Kitchen aboard Stinkpot, with a growler of beer from Two Rivers Ale House. We also had lunch on our final day at the Dairy Palace just so we could finish with ice cream cones before shoving off.

It is duckling and gosling season and they were everywhere in Washington, along with their droppings. I caught this family just as they started across the river.

On the never-ending project front, Amazon delivered the 12v solenoid and I finished the battery charging project (it's been working well since we left the dock), and I made an attempt to repair my ancient Triplett analog VOM, of which I am quite fond. I also helped Dave with a couple of critical projects aboard Stinkpot that he could not complete with his right hand out of commission, to wit, replacing a rotted vent hose on a fuel tank that was sending diesel fumes into their stateroom, using my fuel transfer pump to purge the line from that tank so that it could be safely used, and reconnecting the tank to the fuel system wherein I broke a flare nut and then had to re-flare the line to get it all working. Dave had a flare tool and I had a miniature tubing cutter, and we needed both to get it done.

My Triplett 310. Volts are fine but ohms are not working. I will probably just sell it for parts, sadly.

Not quite a project, but just as much work, we spent a whole rainy day working on travel plans and reservations. Louise will be flying to California the second week in June, and she booked flights out of Norfolk and a rental car. The Norfolk marina we have booked for the second half of the month could not simply give us the preceding two weeks, on account of the annual Harborfest immediately prior to our scheduled dates.They could give us the two weeks before that, but we'd have to be out for those two days, with no nearby anchorage.

Another unscheduled project; the bearing on the helm chair self-destructed. This is the fourth one we've had.

We know from past experience that every marina in a ten-mile radius would be fully booked for Harborfest, and it did not make sense to come in for two weeks, run a couple of hours to a safe anchorage for two days, then come back, and so we started working on alternative plans. We ruminate for quite a while on me just staying at anchor someplace, maybe Hospital Point, while Louise is away for a week, but that has its own issues, including making the early-morning departure and late-evening return to and from the airport for Louise's flights more challenging and less comfortable.

I added this scrap of HDPE atop the sharp edge of the seat post years ago to protect the bearing. It helps, but only delays the inevitable.

In the end we decided we would dock the boat in downtown Norfolk for that week, and we were lucky to get a reservation for those dates. That now has us arriving to Norfolk on June 5 and departing July 5, for a nice round month, but with one week downtown and two weeks out in the boonies, with the intervening time at anchor. Among other things this would let us actually enjoy Harborfest this time, which will also include a flotilla of tall ships on their way to New York for the 250th Independence Day.

Stacey captured our departure from Little Washington.

Our reservation downtown has set the travel schedule for the next ten days, but it is a relaxed one. Yesterday and today's trip on the Pamlico and the crossing of Albemarle Sound are really the only two segments subject to weather, and we're leaving a buffer at the end in case we need to wait on the Sound crossing. We'll kill the time at that end at Great Bridge and Portsmouth, two of our favorite stops anyway.

That's a lot of rules, for pirates. "More what you'd call guidelines" I once heard. Registration forms are in the mailbox. 

Yesterday Josh the diver arrived first thing in the morning and spent over an hour cleaning our hull. His report matched our expectations: an extensive coating of mostly small barnacles on the hull and propeller. It's made a big difference; we've picked up half a knot or so. The dockmaster gave us a late checkout, and after lunch and ice cream we said our goodbyes and dropped lines for the little over two hour cruise to Bath.

Not the oldest church in Bath; this one dates to 1894. The oldest church in the state is a short distance away, dating to 1734, but I could not get a pic.

In the middle of that cruise the heavens opened and visibility dropped to less than a hundred yards; I ran the fog horn for a half hour. The boat got a good rinse, though. Fortunately it had tailed off to a light drizzle by the time we were turning into Bath Creek, where we made our way through the shallow harbor to the State Dock at Hardings Landing (map). We had sounded out the T-head on our last stop here and reasoned we could just make it with inches under the keel; at this water level we had a luxurious foot under keel once we were tied up.

The view from the helm just after I started the horn.

The torrential rain storm was a blessing, inasmuch as the dock was available at all on Memorial Day. We had already agreed we were not going to tender ashore from the anchorage in the rain, so the dock was key to getting ashore at all. After filling out the required permit form for the dock (free up to 72 hours) we grabbed our umbrellas and walked over to Blackbeard's Tavern for pizza and beer. Edward Teach lived here in Bath and the town has leaned in to its Blackbeard connection; the local school sports teams being, of course, The Pirates. The pizza was good and they had several drafts, but everyone in the joint knew we were from away.

Sign at Bonners Point. I could fill an album just with historical signs in Bath.

There was another downpour during dinner but it was again only drizzling on the walk home, and later when it stopped altogether I went out for a walk around Bonner's Point, with many historic homes, churches, and parks. This morning we both walked to the post office, the closest one we'll see until after Norfolk, wagon in tow, to ship off some of Louise's quilts.

Last night's sunset over Bath Creek, just before my walk.

The water level dropped four inches overnight, and we dropped lines to leave as soon as our errands were done, not wanting to risk it dropping much more. Tonight we will be in Belhaven harbor, our last civilization  until Great Bridge. Our next two nights will be at anchor in the Alligator and North rivers.

Update: We are anchored in a familiar spot in Belhaven harbor (map). I could not get all the photos loaded and captioned before we pulled in to the harbor. If the weather cooperates we will go ashore later for dinner.