It’s Thursday morning and we are motoring down the ICW near Oriental, NC. The winds are very calm with just enough on the beam to allow us to motorsail, sort of. It’s a beautiful area in a bleak sort of way.
Last night we anchored in Belhaven NC, a town that some might say has “seen it’s best days” many years ago. The main street has a number of empty storefronts, which is a bit depressing. The land is VERY low with the streets near the water not more than a few feet above sea level. I can’t imagine what a storm surge from a hurricane would do to the area. Can you say “mom, there’s 8’ of water in the garage, no wait, in the living room”. Yikes…
Jim and I went ashore for pizza and beer and were very pleased with how good the pizza was. I wasn’t expecting much and was pleasantly surprised. There is a new restaurant in town that was about to open up when Brenda and I were there last October and I was impressed with how nice it was. Given the look of mainstreet, the place looked a bit out of place. However, even on a Wednesday night they seemed to be doing a pretty good business. The place is called The Tavern at Jack’s Neck. It’s worth visiting.
So, here we are motoring toward Beaufort and our plan to make an offshore run, perhaps beginning on Saturday. However, the dilemma is that the window for a good offshore breeze is pretty short and I am not sure if there is enough time to make the 360 mile run from Beaufort to St Mary’s GA before the wind clocks to the south and stops our progress.
In the fall, winds from the north are common but they seem to only last for a few days prior to clocking back to the prevailing southerly direction. The problem is that this doesn’t allow enough time to make a long run offshore. Anyway, today I was thinking about this and it occurred to me that perhaps the best option would be to bypass Beaufort NC, which is just south of Cape Hatteras and head another 80-100 mile south from there and jump out at either Masonboro Inlet, just north of Cape Fear or to continue a bit further to Cape Fear River Inlet and jump out from there. By heading out from Cape Fear, we can avoid the 40 mile SE run to get around the Cape Fear shoals that would be required if we headed out from Masonboro Inlet.
I suspect that we will be able to make the additional distance down the ICW to Southport NC in time to catch the favorable winds in the Cape Fear area that should arrive late on Saturday.
Anyway, that’s the plan, for today anyway, which should put us into St Mary’s in time to make our Wednesday evening flights home.
Yesterday and today will be long days but the motoring is easy with very light winds and glass calm conditions. Yesterday we were underway for over 11 hours and made nearly 80 miles. That was a long but very pleasant day. Today is likely to be about the same. The shore scenery as we headed down narrow canals was a bit bleak but pretty at the same time. I guess you’ll have to be the judge. 
Very peaceful.
A few minutes ago two mean looking bunch of GI Joe guys in RIBS blasted by. They were hauling. Your tax dollars hard at work. 
And, what’s a post without a nice sunrise over downtown Belhaven in a light haze.
The beginning of yet another beautiful day on the ICW. 
We’ll see how the plans go. For now, continuing to mosey on down the ICW.
And, that’ s my report.