Wednesday June 23, 2011

We awoke in Swansboro NC to the sounds of a 07:00 artillery barrage from Fort Lejeune, a few miles away. The boat was covered in ash from the nearby brush fires and low lying smoke enshrouded the area.


The engine room had cooled off overnight and Captain Brian spent an hour down below working on troubleshooting the high transmission temperature alarm problem we had encountered yesterday. We finally concluded that we had a bad temperature sensor rather than something wrong with the transmission. We disconnected the defective sensor and proceeded to our destination of Beaufort NC. We found out there are no replacement parts immediately available (6 week delivery) so we will have to do without temperature sensing on one transmission.

Here we are leaving Swansboro.

The first part of the route was along a man-made canal. We then entered Bogue Sound which had a dredged channel with little islands made from the dredged material.

The smoke got worse as we neared Beaufort and visibility reduced to 1/4 mile.

The approach to Beaufort through Moorehead City was a bit tricky with multiple channels and no visibility but were able to get tied up at the Beaufort Town Docks by 13:50.

Approaching Town Docks

Beaufort Waterfront

The smoke started to lift as the sea breeze built through the afternoon and we were able to do a walking tour of the town. The big claim to fame here is that Beaufort was once home to Blackbeard the Pirate.

After our walk we stopped at the local sailor's pub of a cold beer.

We all went out to a really cool restaurant for a "Tapas Style" supper.

Our cumulative totals:
Distance travelled = 1099.8 nm
Travel Time = 156 h 9 m
Fuel Burn = 991.7 USGal