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We needed to get Tahina to Beaufort by Sunday so we can have it hauled out at a boatyard there on Monday. Fortunately, my friend Gerard had offered to help with the sail, since Karen needed to continue finishing touches on the house. On Saturday, I first loaded the truck with stuff from the house for one of my daughters, and then we loaded Gerard’s car with stuff for the boat. After dropping off the truck-load, we drove to Carolina Beach and loaded the stuff for the boat. There was a lot of stuff from the house, which will need sifting to make sure we aren’t carrying unneeded items before we depart on the big trip.
As soon as Gerard and I were done loading, I got on the Internet to check the weather. The issue with the forecast is that northerly winds were going to develop sooner than expecting on Sunday (as early as 8 AM). Since that’s the direction we were headed, we would want to avoid that. It appeared there would be some chance of some sailing if we left right away. So, we immediately prepped the boat (by following our passage checklist), and were leaving the dock at 6:30 PM.
It was close enough to high tide for us to leave out Carolina Beach Inlet. Since Gerard had never seen the spinnaker, and I hadn’t tried it since we had the chute repaired in June, we decided to try out the spinnaker even though it was close to sunset. We had it up in short order (about 20 minutes) without any issues. Unfortunately, we only had maybe 30 minutes to fly the big sail before dusk was settling. My rule is to take down the spinnaker at night – especially with crew who had never put away the big sail before. Fortunately, we had no problem dousing the sail.
We managed to sail for several hours during the night (there was a lull for about 3 hours). It was fantastic sailing under a starry filled sky, cruising over smooth waters, on a warm summer night. Gerard was loving it every bit as much as I. We both couldn’t stop talking about how nice it was.
By morning the winds were clocking around. but, we managed to get within 8 miles of Cape Lookout shortly after the pale red orb of the sun had risen over the ocean. We had decided during the night to anchor at Cape Lookout when we arrived and get some sleep. Then we’d enjoy the bay there for a few hours before moving to Beaufort town anchorage for the night. At 8 miles, we had wind on the nose to Cape Lookout, we were tired, and so we doused the sails and cranked up an engine to get there more direct. By 8 AM we dropped the new anchor and were soon fast asleep for the rest of the morning.
We had a nice lunch in the cool breeze at the cockpit table watching other boaters in the anchorage. We then lowered the dinghy and went ashore. The winds were perfect, so we took one of the new kites and tried it on shore. The kites are for the aerial photography we plan to do during the Tahina Expedition. Expect to see a few photos of the kite flying – and this whole trip – soon.
After a relaxing afternoon in the anchorage, we raised the mainsail and the anchor, and sailed our way out of Cape Lookout and over to the entrance to Beaufort/Morehead City. We motored the rest of the way and dropped anchor at Beaufort by late afternoon. Soon we had taken showers and went ashore to find a restaurant for dinner.
For both Gerard and I, it was a great 24 hours or so doing what we both love: Sailing!
