Saturday, November 2nd

It rained and howled all night just like what was predicted!    When our alarm went off at 6 am, we thought we were crazy to get up in the rain, walk to the courtesy car, and drive back into Oriental.  I had reserved the car for early this morning because Colette and I wanted to go to the towns’ farm market which is held only on Saturday morning from 8-11am.  Since the car was already reserved for 8-10, we decided we could get into town early and eat breakfast first.  We lucked out! When we met at  the dock it had quit raining but we were prepared with our foul weather gear.

It was Chuck’s turn to drive!  We found Brantley’s Restaurant and it had lots of cars already in its parking lot….this is always a good sign!! They must have good food.  After eating breakfast, we all agreed the food was excellent.  At 8:00 am, we drove to the town dock and parked.  Colette and I were both disappointed with the market.  There were no vegetables or fruit!  It was more like a flea market.  Needless to say, I didn’t buy a thing.  Soon it was time to return the car for the next couple. 

Once we got back to our boats, we checked the weather and decided that by the noon the weather was going to be good for traveling.  We spent the last two days at River Dunes Marina, NC and now it’s time to move on.  After stowing items below deck, rolling up the power cord, and uncleating some of the lines,  it was time to start the engine.  Oh no….the engine won’t start!  Now remember, yesterday Al and  Chuck were tinkering on something in our boat.  What could they have done to the engine…or starter….or????  Here when I shut the engine off on Thursday, I forgot to push the stop lever back down!!  My fault.  What a relief that’s all it was!!  So we left the dock around 11 am and retraced our route back out Broad Creek and into the Neuse River.  Destination?  Beaufort, NC.

We motor-sailed 9 miles across the Neuse River to Adam’s Creek Inlet and then down the Adam’s Creek Canal.    This was a very scenic stretch.  Euphoria and Happy Hours II  passed the sailing vessel ‘Release’ and both of the guys took their turn talking to its captain.  Then, a dog jumped into the swift moving canal right in front of Euphoria!  They had to slow down to dodge the dog, a beagle.  Ha ha!  I didn’t know they liked to swim.  He must have seen an animal on the other side of the canal.  As we continued along, we had a pair of dolphins swim beside us near the southern end of the Adam’s Creek Canal.  Then once we exited the canal, we saw a pod of about a dozen dolphins swimming around the day markers on our port side….but I never could get a good picture with my camera!  We were heading  for Town Creek which is behind the town of Beaufort.  

It was around 4 pm by the time we dropped our anchor and made sure that it was holding.  Al and Colette picked us up in their dinghy  and we went under the bascule bridge and around to the dinghy dock at Beaufort.  Unlike some of the other towns we’ve visited,  Beaufort was still alive with activity. 

 It was a nice evening for a walk!  We bumped into a couple we met in Elizabeth City.  We even went into a few of the shops as well as ate at Clawson’s.  Our ride back to our boats was in the dark which reminded us that we needed to set our clocks back 1 hour tonight.  This  means we have to leave earlier in the morning because we’ll lose an hour of light at the end of the day.