We decided to stay in Beaufort another night to do some errands and wait out weather. Today we awoke early to help s/v Persephone get off the dock for their trip outside to Wrightsville Beach. We are going to continue inside just because we haven't done it before and want to see the sights. The weather was cloudy with high winds but no rain. A lot of boats had trouble getting off the docks here because of a strong current and wind in the same direction. Yesterday a large motor cruiser blew into 2 boats anchors ripping off a 20' piece of stainless steel railing and breaking through a window. Today we had to help fend off a sailboat which got blown sideways into 3 boats in their slips. Of course we were a little spooked but waited for slack tide at 8AM and with the help of someone on our dock we were off with little difficulty. Winds 20K out of the North and we could put sail out for half of the trip until the ICW became too narrow. We travelled 47 miles today, 5 miles of it through a live shooting range of Camp Lejeune, a large marine military base along the coast. We did spot about 8-10 amphibious assault vehicles and their crews lined up to cross the water from their firing range. We later heard the roar of their engines and tank tracks and saw them cross the road beyond our anchorage. Don't worry, though, if they are firing there is a flashing light sign and boat that blocks the ICW to traffic.
We almost made a bridge opening at 12:30 but were about 1/2 mile short so we circled until the next opening at 1PM. Just 3 miles later we came into our anchorage for the night. It is a dredged basin in Camp Lejeune just off the channel. There are about 20 boats total tonight. The wind is blowing 20k again!!! We are only going about 35 miles tomorrow to Wrightsville Beach so we will take our time in the morning and let most of the motor boats leave before us (hopefully). More dolphins frolicked alongside a few times today.
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