Passing Time in Beaufort, NC

By Jim:

A sailboat at anchor on Taylor’s Creek.

As we tick off the last few items on our “liveaboards’ To Do List”, we’re enjoying Beaufort. Although we’ve been to Beaufort dozens of times over the years (and I’ve been coming here since childhood) we’ve made lots of new discoveries. We have taken lots of walks admiring the beautiful historic homes, found a couple of new-to-us restaurants, and been entertained almost daily by wild ponies and dolphins. Ocean Song is berthed at the Beaufort City Docks on Taylor’s Creek. Out our starboard-side windows we have a wonderful view of the anchorage and a large swath of Carrot Island. Recently there have been some foggy mornings, but good weather overall.

Wild ponies on Carrot Island.

We’ve seen as many as 5 wild ponies at one time grazing near the water on Carrot Island. Most mornings and evenings we see dolphins hunting within a few feet of Ocean Song. Yesterday, January 19th, at least 10 dolphins spent about 45 minutes trolling Taylor’s Creek, and presumably having good meals. We watched them swim back and forth in the middle of the creek. They would swim a couple of hundred yards up the creek and then back, over and over again. We guessed they had found a good meal in that small portion of the Creek. There were at least 2 mother dolphins with babies and there might have been 3 pairs, it was hard to get a good count with all the crisscrossing they were doing. We know there were 10 different dolphins and perhaps 2 or 3 more. Eventually they headed in the direction of Knasty Harbor (not really nasty any longer).

The Sun coming to burn off the fog.

We’ve spent time onboard Ocean Song in Beaufort before, but this has been our first extended stay here. We’ve been getting lots of Amazon packages as we finish equipping Ocean Song for long-term, liveaboard sailing. We’re installing new, upgraded radar because our current radar has had some technical issues (a common theme with this particular unit). We’ve had most of our new scuba gear delivered, 4 tanks, with various accoutrements, a tank rack, etc. We are waiting for our scuba compressor, and we will do some dedicated electrical wiring for it. We are putting together our fishing gear, Penn rods and reels, assorted lures, a gaff, a net, etc. Our primary fishing “targets” will be mahi-mahi and tuna, but we’re willing to catch whatever bites! We did the final install on our washing machine; we’ve hung closet rods in our heads to hang and dry out scuba gear, and we’ve made water 4 times!

One of the many dolphin trolling beside Ocean Song.

We will probably be in Beaufort for at least 2 more weeks (the scuba compressor will get here at the end of January), then we will head south as permitted by the weather. Our mast is too tall for the ICW so we are strictly offshore sailors heading south. We will start monitoring the weather more closely in the coming days as our preparations wind down to be ready for a good weather window to start heading to the Bahamas.