Voyage 2012: Chapter 1

14 Oct 2012, Heading Home to Mona Black, 34 02.556 N/ 077 53.484 W

We are not very fond of Beaufort NC as the marina managers are not always nice to us anchoring folks (see previous journals for details). As a result, we don't normally stop there anymore but rather leave from RE Mayo and go directly to Carolina Beach via the offshore route. Take that Beaufort! However, the weather was deteriorating this year so we decided to stage our offshore venture closer to Beaufort. So we picked the South River off of the Neuse River. We tucked in there waiting for the blow to pass, and left as late yesterday as possible as the coastal weather calmed down. It worked, sorta.

Today, we arrived at the Beaufort NC sea buoy right around dusk with decreasing wind out of the NE (butt winds) but seas were still above 6 ft which resulted in a rolly world. With all of our efforts, we arrived at the Masonboro sea buoy an hour before daylight. So we hove to until we could see the inlet and a clear path to the ICW. The two hour trip from Wrightsville to Mona Black marina was uneventful and we were pleased to see Jessica, Gene, Mo, and Bill waiting for us. Not bad!