Day 39: Beaufort, not Beaufort.

4/20/18:  We had some planning to do for today’s journey which would take us over 60 miles to Beaufort.
This is “BOE-fort” NC, which is not to be confused with “BIEW-fert” SC.  The first thing to check is that we need to travel through Camp Lejeune Marine Corp’s base.  They had scheduled live fire practice over the ICW for 4/17, but that could have changed.  So I called ‘Range Control’.  The nice fella told me that today would be an excellent day to travel the ICW -no firing exercises today.  YAY!  It would be a bummer to get 30 miles up there and then not be allowed to proceed.  The next item for navigational clearance:  there are two bridges for today that only open on a schedule.  The first one is Surf City swing bridge, with 12’ clearance, about 7 miles away, and only opens at the top of the hour.  We need about an hour to get there.  There is a minus tide at 6:30am, which might be too shallow for a safe departure.  We decided to leave a little before 8, and aim for the 9:00 opening.  The second bridge is Onslow swing bridge at Camp Lejeune, 20 miles further, with 12’ clearance.  It opens on the hour and the half hour.   But if you are not actually sitting there waiting, the bridge tender will NOT let you through.  After that, it would be clear cruising.  The final job for the navigator is to confirm where we will stay tonight.  The Beaufort Docks right downtown would be great – right on the boardwalk.  However, it is well known to be challenging with swift current.  Check the tides.  Dang it.  We will be arriving around 4:00, which is maximum ebb tide.  Plan B?  Another marina in a basin just north of downtown.  Obstacle?  A draw bridge that only opens on the hour and half hour…EXCEPT it does not open between 4:30-6:00pm.  However, there is a possibility of a relaxed schedule, since a new high rise bridge was being built and may be completed.  I wouldn’t be able to get any intel on any of this until after we set out for the day.  So – away we go!  We let Sum Escape take the lead.  Their normal travel speed is just a touch faster than ours.

We made it to our first bridge with about 10 minutes to spare.  This is where we were lined up waiting for the Surf City swing bridge – bridge #1.  That is Sum Escape in front of us, then another boat or two, then the swing bridge.

After getting through there, I finally found the phone number for the draw bridge in Beaufort.  I called, and the nicest man told me that they no longer adhere to a strict schedule – just come on up and he’d open the bridge when ever we needed.  SWEET!  So then I called the Plan B marina, and they had space for us.  Good deal Lucille.  We’re all hooked up for a spot for the next two nights.

Our Navionics chart software on Gladys is great.  Just like in a car or on Google Maps, we can put in a route for travel, and it will track and predict our arrival time.  So we put in the Onslow bridge as our destination, and we could adjust our speed if needed to ensure arrival in time for the opening.  We did have to adjust some, because even though the engines were set to be going our normal 7.5 knots/hour, sometimes we were only going 6.5, sometimes 9, thanks to varying current as we approached or passed ocean inlets.  So our arrival time could vary from being early, or being late. It was nice to be able to adjust and get there EARLY (because ON TIME would have been considered LATE).

Here we are at the Onslow (Camp Lejeune) swing bridge.  This bridge tender gets the Mr. Grumpypants award.  WOW!  There were five boats waiting – we were #4.  The bridge started to open promptly at 11:30.  As soon as the bridge was half way open, a horn honked, and the bridge tender got on the radio and chewed out boat #1 for not moving through; that he was holding up traffic, and delaying everything.  The boater was waiting for a safe, nearly full opening, which is common practice.  YIKES!  So we all started to move forward, and the tender was really cranky  that we all needed to MOVE IT, that he can only have the bridge open for so long, blah blah blah.  So, in spite of the “no wake” sign, we were all hustling through at about 6 knots with wakes!  Sheesh.  Every boat radioed and thanked him for the opening, which is customary.  He did not respond.  He apparently did not go to Southern Hospitality classes.  Maybe he was a drill sergeant, and he likes to keep his platoon in order!

Here are some of the things we saw as we passed through Camp Lejeune.  I don’t know how you would even get to this sign and not know this, since it is north of the bridge and that guy isn’t going to let anybody through.  But I suppose if you were a little boat you might ignore any previous warnings.

And here are some of the targets.  These tanks are on a narrow slice of land in between the ICW and the Atlantic Ocean.  I’m glad there weren’t any cannon balls being lobbed over us today!

There was some air traffic, but they weren’t firing at anything.

It was a long day.  There were a couple of inlets to the ocean that had some shoaling, but they were pretty well marked.  Our Navionics charts on Gladys have been great, and they corresponded with the Army Corp of Engineers surveys that we had copies of from our route briefing in Southport.  There were even some long straight stretches where Awetoe (our autopilot) got to drive.

As we came into the channel to Beaufort, I called the bridge tender on the phone, as he had requested I do, to let him know we were in the area.  He told us to just keep on acomin, and he would keep watch for us and get that bridge open for us no problem.  Sure enough, we turned a corner and got the bridge in sight, and HE called US on the radio!  He told Captain that he had his eyes on us, keep it comin, and the bridge would be ready for us.  Yep!  We didn’t hardly even need to slow down.  This guy gets the Mr Hospitalitypants award!  As we passed through, he asked if we were continuing north, because the water is a little skinny at marker 10.  We told him no, we were just going to this marina right here.  Well then, he wished us a happy day and a happy stay!

We immediately called the Homer-Smith Marina on the radio.  They had their eyes on us too, and told us how to approach the marina.  Tony was on the dock to help with lines.  Captain got to the slip, turned to back the stern in, and the wind and/or current caught us and we missed the slip.  Abort and do over.  It happened again.  Abort and do over.  This time, I called up to him and said maybe aim for the slip next to ours and let the wind/current move us into the right spot.  He tried that, and it worked.  Sometimes it takes both of us to figure how what might work.  We were both surprised at how much the boat drifted.  The good news is that Captain isn’t afraid to abort and do-over, which is usually a better option than trying to salvage something that isn’t working.  The fellas on the dock were supportive and did not seem surprised at all.  They’ve seen it before, many times.  Tony was sooo nice!  The marina has a free washer/dryer available, a courtesy car to use any time.  And call them any time day or night if you need anything.  Nice!  He definitely went to his Southern Hospitality classes.  😊  This is actually a working seafood facility, with forklifts and so on, so it smells a bit fishy.  But the docks are in great condition, everything is clean, and very hospitable.  And it’s just a little ways from town, so we’ll get some miles on our walking shoes.

Oh!  And our “Loopometer” has registered our first 1000 miles on this trip!  We have travelled 1,032 miles.