Sunday, November 3rd

What an interesting night to say the least!  The winds started to honk out of the northwest at 1:00 am. They woke me up, so I popped my head outside to make sure our anchors was holding.  Then  Chuck woke up and did a double check.  It seem to be okay because we were in the same relative location to sv/Haven that was on our port side. 

Our plans were to be ready for the 8:00 am Beaufort Bascule Bridge.  So our alarm went off at 7 am and we scurried around to get prepared.  I noticed Al out at his anchor and thought he was preparing to shove off early.  Did he get the time mixed since we had to 'fall behind' with our clocks last night?  When I called Colette, she said that their boat had dragged its anchor last night around 1:30 am and drifted back onto a sandbar.  They put 2 anchors out to keep them from bumping sv/Release on one side and a trawler on their other side. After this incident, neither one of them slept much for the remainder of the night.  I can see why!

Once our anchors were pulled in, we both were ready for the lift bridge.  I called the tender to request the opening of the bridge at his convenience.
Since Al got very little sleep last night, Chuck took over the duty of leading today's adventure down the ICW.  Our plans were to go to the anchorage known as Mile Hammock Bay in Camp LeJuene.

As we passed under the Beaufort Bridge and I thanked the tender for the opening, he wished us a safe journey and requested that we make him a Bloody Mary because of the name of our boat.....lol.  We passed Beaufort on our port side into the Boque Sound toward Morehead City, NC.  Along this part of our journey, we were aware of two 'Trouble Spots' that Active Captain warned boaters to beware of.  The first area was not a problem when hugging the docks at R46B and G45 along the mainland side.  The next was at G61A where Browns Inlet cuts into the ICW.  We passed through this second area safely also, but unfortunately a large sailboat was aground in the middle of the channel.  We were the 3rd sailboat in a pack of 4 that safely maneuvered around the markers and that boat.  This is just the start of hearing sailboats calling for TowBoat US or SeaTow! 

Grounded

Threw a big wake when he passed.

The remainder of our trip was uneventful...which is good!  The Atlantic Beach Bridge and Emerald Isle Bridge are both fixed bridges at 65' which we can motor under without any delay but we had to wait briefly for the Onslow Beach Bridge to swing.  Hey, that's okay. Once we pass through the Onslow, it's only 3.7 miles to Mile Hammock Bay.  We were warned to get to this anchorage before 4:00 pm because it is a popular site and fills up fast.  In fact, it looks like it's the last anchorage for miles down the rest of the NC coast.  On entering at 2:00, I counted 9 sailboats, 1 $$$ yacht, and 1 trawler already at anchor!  Since we were still in the pack of 4 sailboats, that quickly increased 11 boats to 15 boats in the anchorage.  More boats motored in just before dusk.

After Al's much needed nap, we dinghied over to Euphoria for a visit and to plan tomorrow's trip.  It was a bit windy during the night but we were well protected in this basin.