I got back from AK during the first week of August. We stuck around Charleston for about a week or so, but consistent temperatures in the upper 90’s chased us north pretty quickly. Basically, the first favorable forecast we got for the ride up to NC, we took.
Unfortunately, the SE wind that was called for was more like ENE, and a little stronger than forecast, too. So, our nice little beam reach that we had planned turned into an upwind slog. We even had to tack a few times. The horror!
So, with a reef in the main, a full uphill water ballast tank, and the most equanimity we could manage considering the unexpected point of sail, we made our way up the coast, with Rocket Science punching through as many seas as she rode over. She’s very fine forward, and the hull is unusually V-shaped forward of the keel for an ultralight, so she does better than most of her genre on the wind. Still, launching a 24,000 pound 55 footer off of gulf stream steepened seas, one winds up landing with a resounding crash much of the time. The boat doesn’t mind it a bit, she’s built to an extremely high standard for this sort of thing, but the humans and canine aboard tend to get a bit grumpy after a time.
Anyway, all things do eventually pass, and we arrived right at dusk on day 2, tying up at Portside marina in Morehead City, which had the only slip deep enough for us in the basin- or so they claimed…
A brief aside for any marina employees reading this. Please remember that low tide always tells the truth, even if you don’t!
We know that a boat with our draft isn’t really suited for the east coast. We get it, and we’re just passing through. With this in mind, we always ask very specifically about boat approach depth and depth alongside at any place that we’re looking at stopping. The answer is invariably ‘sure, there’s PLENTY of water here’. Unfortunately, that just isn’t the case. The keel has been in the mud in 3 of the 4 marinas that we’ve been in since arriving back in the USA.
Anyway, we arrived toward high tide at the marina advertising 12 feet at LW, and we did in fact make it all the way to the slip. Nice, we set to picking out a couple of bushels worth of Sargasso grass from out of the lifelines, shrouds, etc. There was seaweed hanging off of everything, thanks to our semi-submarine of a boat. Then we sunk gratefully into our bunks and awoke the next day to go explore the area. When we got back to the boat, we found her about 8″ off her waterline, laying against the dock. It turns out that 12 feet was more like 8.5. Grr. I went and found a stick and discovered that it was even shallower behind us, but it was deeper toward the end of the dock. So, once we started floating again, we moved forward until about 15 feet of the bow was sticking out into the harbor basin, and managed to remain afloat from there on out. Aside from the depth issue, we found the staff at Portside to be really nice folks, so there’s no reason for anybody not to stop there.
We spent a few pleasant days there. Beaufort’s a charming little town, Morehead city, not as much, but the epidemic friendliness that we found throughout the Carolinas was especially in evidence there.Much of the rest of the country could certainly take a lesson from these folks.
Next entry, around Cape Hatteras to Annapolis!
