BEAUFORT TO COINJOCK, NC

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Beaufort, NC, is pronounced "BOW-fert".  It is quite different from Beaufort, SC, which is pronounced "BYOO-fert" (as in beautiful).  This has puzzled me for quite some time.  Recent visits to  these two small towns along the Southeastern coast have helped me appreciate the differences between them. We spent Sunday afternoon through Tuesday morning tied up at the Beaufort Docks in North Carolina.  This is a quaint small town, steeped in seafaring history and pirate lore. Blackbeard hung out here. Boat repairs, maintenance and chores such as laundry and a run to the grocery store in the marina's borrowed jalopy prevented us from seeing many of the sites.  However, during a walk around the block after dinner Monday evening we strolled past the Old Burial Ground and wished we had visited earlier in the day when the gates were open. We also bought a beautiful new American flag for the MollyBelle to replace the old one which had become very tattered.

We departed Beaufort early Tuesday morning for Belhaven, NC.  That trip was extremely rough and windy through the Neusse River...much rougher than our jaunt in the Atlantic Ocean on Sunday.  The winds and the water battered the boat and we arrived in Belhaven minus our brand new flag!  Also discovered that the hatch over our stateroom leaked and all the bedding needed to be washed and dried in the single washer and drier available at the small (but very charming) Belhaven Marina.

Now it is Wednesday evening and we are tied up for the night at the 1,000-foot-long dock of the marina in Coinjock, NC, along with several other trawlers and sailboats. Today's journey on the Alligator River and the Albemarle Sound was fraught with more rough seas and near misses with crab traps and runaway branches and  tree stumps.  We had been forewarned about these things--nonetheless it was a very challenging day.  Took on more water through the hatch in our stateroom necessitating another trip to marina laundry.  Dick and I are still speaking to each other...but only when necessary!  Tomorrow we head for Norfolk, VA, where we will stay for a few days and hope to experience some of the festivities of OpSail, including a parade of international tall ships on Friday and fireworks on Saturday as part of a bicentennial commemoration of the War of 1812. Perhaps we will get the leaky hatch repaired while we are there!