Aground in the SC Rockville. He’s probably already arranged for a tow off when the tide returns. 

If you’re navigating outside along the US east coast, North Carolina is where you encounter three noticeable points to go around. They are capes Fear, Lookout and Hatteras. There are major inlets at Cape Fear and Lookout. Hatteras instead has a lighthouse telling you to keep away. We originally thought that if the waves would stay calm we could have gone all the way from Brunswick GA to Beaufort NC outside, navigating through Frying Pan Shoals around Cape Fear. Instead we entered the ICW at Charleston and continued up that way.

Sunday we went to the Methodist church, the oldest in a very old town.

Between Charleston and Beaufort NC the ICW is pretty straight, so our distance traveled was little more than on the outside. The difference is that outside we would travel 24 hours in a day rather than 6 to 8. We can only do that continuously so much, however, because normally neither we nor a weather window can last long enough.

After a long stay in Little River we finally got away, crossed into North Carolina and stopped overnight in Harbour Village Marina in Hampstead. The next day took us to Beaufort NC were Sunday night will be our third. This is our 2nd time here. Beaufort is a small town but big enough to be interesting. It is the third oldest NC town and has long been a seaport. Since we’re on foot, our choice of churches within two blocks of the boat was the First Baptist and the Methodist. We went to the Methodist, which has been there from the beginning of the town.

Needed a bit of wood to fix something. Thought of going here, but got what we needed in a waste pile along the way.

Greg from Washington NC was in town working on other boats and so came over to do a few things on ours as well. There’s always something to do on a boat. It’s nice to have all the modern conveniences but when you get enough of them together it seems there’s always something that needs fixing. I’m learning more as we go, but when we spend a few days in a place and there’s someone there that fixes boats we just naturally seem to get together.