Day 15: Wrightsville Bch to Beaufort, NC

With about 80 miles ahead of us, and a drawbridge schedule to make (the bridge is about 100 yds ahead of our mooring), we slip our bonds at 0750 on a very fresh but very still and bright morning, call the bridge tender, and get an immediate opening. Five miles to go, and we'll have a second bridge tender to talk to. We're early, and have to wait 7 minutes for him. Better than being 7 min late, as that can ruin your whole day!

Forget the South Carolinians and their lovely city of 'BEW-fert'... the North Carolinians have a different twang, and they say 'BOH-fert' (as WE would expect).

We motor up long cuts and channels (some quite shallow) that connect estuarine and tidal portions of intracoastal waterway; Middle Sound, Stump Sound, the New River inlet, Bogue Sound, to Morehead City and the Newporet River at the Beaufort Inlet.

We tuck away into Homer Smith's Dock & Marina and are safe for another night. Graeme and Lorraine and I wander a block to a convenience store to restock on milk. Then Preston and I take the marina courtesy car and drive to a couple of supermarkets for an abortive sortie for me to get some 'hot' salami. It seems that Americans don't eat a lot of spicy salami. I am surprised, as I thought we had flown thousands of miles to be in the global headquarters of salami consumption.

Preston has a chat with the dockhand and it turns out he's a fan of New Zealanders! He was over in Auckland, involved with the Americas Cup and later made two trips to tour NZ; one to the Sth Island and another around the Nth Island. We also see a motor yacht called 'Kiwi' tied up at the marina,もっと詳しく