Sunday 10/22/2017 - Oriental to Beaufort NC

I think we were the first ones out of the harbor at just before 7am.  It is about 4 miles across the Neuse River to the entrance of Adams Creek.  We motored for about a mile then sailed (broad reached at 3 to 4.5 knots) until we were into Adams Creek.  Then we motored the remaining 15, or so, miles to Beaufort.

I began checking the bilge again and realized that the shaft packing gland was leaking about 4 cups an hour.  To me, that's a lot of water.  To me,  one drop a minute is too much.  I would sponge the water into a bucket to limit the amount of water in the entire (very shallow) bilge.  It really wasn't a big deal since it isn't something that could fail catastrophically.  It also wasn't a volume that the automatic bilge pump couldn't easily keep up with. 

We came into Morehead City about noon, went around Radio Island, and into Beaufort at the perfect time - the current was at slack which means it was exactly between ebb (going out) and flood (coming in).  So there was no current.  Docking is much easier with zero current. 

I had called Beaufort Docks earlier and made a slip reservation.  I called them on channel 16 and they sent two dock hands out right out.  They were very helpful since I was not even prepared with my dock lines.  We got tied up, went to the office to check in.  After getting settled, we went to the Maritime Museum for a couple hours and then went to a nice restaurant nearby for dinner. 

It was a long but nice day.