BEAUFORT, NC TO ORIENTAL, NC

Wednesday, May 6th, 2015

Day 275
Miles Traveled: 35
Total Miles Traveled: 3623


  In less than one mile after leaving Beaufort Docks, we arrived at the Beaufort Canal Swing Bridge.  This bridge tender had a great sense of humor which started our day on a positive note.  "Quo Vadimus" was in the lead as we started through Russell Slough and on to Core Creek.  We both enjoyed the rustic sign on this waterway and hoped the answer to the question was "YES!"

sign on Core Creek
reads - "Leslie will you marry me?"

  We continued on and entered Adams Creek Canal.  Almost the entire length of this canal was a No Wake Zone (meaning go at idle speed which is as slow as a boat can go). Along this canal were multiple homes with docks.  We found several of the homes to be quite cute, and, we especially liked the one in the second picture (wonder why?)

cute home on Adams Creek Canal

seahorse home on Adams Creek Canal

    Adams Creek Canal connects Core Creek and Adams Creek.  Adams Creek is not like any creek we have seen in Ohio.  Most of those creeks are very small, shallow, and often without water.  Adams Creek is just the opposite.  

Adams Creek

  Adams Creek empties into the Neuse River.  Once we got on the Neuse River, we understood why Adams Creek was considered a creek.  The Neuse River is an expansive body of water and is the longest river entirely contained in North Carolina.  This is not a river to be on when the wind is up.  We had about 10-15 mph winds and light chop making for a fairly comfortable ride.  This river is noted as being one of the meanest bodies of water on the east coast.  Fortunately, it was nice to us today.   

Neuse River

  Our final destination was River Dunes Marina in Oriental, NC.  Many other boats were also traveling to this marina, and, by the end of the morning, there was a large caravan of boats traveling down the Neuse River toward the entry at Broad Creek. Some of the boaters we knew and some we did not as we heard conversations on the VHFs.  There were so many that I am not going to list them.  The harbor master advised us the he had 15 boats coming in almost all at once.  The dock hands were very busy.  Bad weather was being predicted for the next several days, and, this marina is back in a very protected harbor with nice amenities.

view of the docks at River Dunes Marina from our flybridge

  
  
  Since there were so many boaters that arrived, the restaurant at the marina opened for the evening.  Usually, it is only open on Fridays and Saturdays and lunch on Sundays.  We had a big turn out for "docktails" on the porch of the harbor office and then proceeded upstairs to dinner.

"docktails" on the porch

  The food was great and the company even better.  We dined with Foster & Susan of "Quo Vadimus", Craig & Donna of "Mighty Fine" and Charlie & Kay of "Plane 2 Sea".  Our dessert was a fabulous sunset over Grace Harbor.

sunset over Grace Harbor