Beaufort, NC

Departing Dudley's Marina we traveled across Bogue Sound and past Moorehead City arriving downtown Beaufort, NC around Noon. We motored up and down Taylor Creek in front of the beautiful town looking for a place to anchor. The current flows about 1- 1.5 knots through this harbor and many anchored yachts were on mooring balls or had two anchors set. We found a nice spot just off the town docks and dropped one anchor on a short 3:1 scope. After secured, we launched the dinghy and explored the town. When we returned to the boat, we were swinging into a boat with two anchors and we were too close for the forecast of 20-25 knot winds. So we pulled up anchor and decided to move around to Town Creek on the back side of Beaufort where we would anchor.

As it turned out we ended up taking a dock at Town Creek Marina due to shallow water in the harbor and the fact that we did not figure out where to anchor as the winds were building. We docked in 25 knots of cross winds with no issues.

This ended up to be a great decision as the local area has poor Verizon Broadband coverages but this marina had FREE WiFi high speed and we tapped in and accomplished our work for grad school. Spending two days here, we were lucky enough to meet up with another Island Packet Owner, Greg K. who owns an IP 350 in the area. Greg stopped over and we visited and chatted for a while. IP people are always so friendly and so helpful and that is one of the great aspects about this cruising life.

CRUISING NOTES:

1. Next time I would keep trying to anchor in Taylor Creek off the town. I would run into the creek a greater distance since it is deep a long way in past the town.
2. If Taylor Creek off the town is too full, then I would move around back and anchor off Town Creek Marina between the marina and the bridge, just west of the marina. (see my google map)
3. I would NOT take a slip at Town Creek Marina again, it is really for the sport fishing fleet with fuel lines running on all docks for fuel IN THE SLIPS! The bathrooms are OK, but not really. You are way out of town despite the name...So next time if I had to anchor here it would be off the marina and take the dinghy around to town.

GOOGLE MAP HERE