Dolphins & Dinghies

The sun came out over New Bern and Baxter and I backed out of our slip, did the pirouette in the fairway that our right-hand prop calls for, and headed for the coast.  We sailed a beam reach down to Minnesott and as I was at the helm, chatting with Baxter about getting around the ferries, I heard a strange noise behind me.  We turned around to find at least 25 bottle-nosed dolphins on our stern.  They were slapping their tails and swimming in pods of 3 or 4.  We couldn’t believe dolphins would swim that far up the Neuse river but there they were.  As soon as we got close to the ferry crossing, they said farewell and went on their way, as did we.

From the Adam’s Creek entrance we “channeled” our way down the ICW with a constant watch on the depth gauge and the channel markers.  There was a point close to Beaufort where the beach was 10 ft off our stern with sand pipers running in the sand but Stella Blue was happy in 25 feet of water.  We would like to take this opportunity to thank all the people who contribute to the dredging.  

Notice the shoaling just to the left of the channel marker, about 25 yards from our boat.

Town Creek Marina and anchorage was a nice haven and we dropped the hook.  Next on the list was dingying into town. Kala still has not agreed to go on the boat and we could smell the fresh seafood from the cockpit.  Baxter inflated the dingy, dropped the swim ladder, and we strapped Kala into her life jacket.  As a new adventure, she wasn’t sure where this would take her but as soon as her paws were on terra firma, she was all wags.  We walked over to the Beaufort waterfront and found Queen Anne’s Revenge which had patio dining and they encouraged us to bring Kala in and gave her a fresh bowl of ice water, oh and Baxter and I had a beer.  Now that’s service!!  

By sunset, we were back on the boat and ready for the next day.