Before departure we filled our water tanks and walked Frank. We were only going about twenty five miles today so we didn’t need to leave too early. We followed the ICW and made our way to Beaufort. Upon researching the town, I saw there was an anchorage right across from the town with access to a dinghy dock. When we arrived we found the anchorage was again already filled with boats. There was a catamaran behind us, so I called to him on the radio to tell him our intentions of finding a place to anchor. He had the same idea. Since he was smaller, he would probably find a place easier than we could. As we were circling around, we noticed a large sailboat trying to retrieve their anchor, but it had a pipe of sorts wrapped around it, so they were having trouble. That didn’t make me feel too good about anchoring there. We tried to find a spot, but the water got shallow and the channel got narrow, so we decided to find somewhere else. Around the corner of land was another anchorage listed on the chart, so we went there. There were two marinas back there, and we anchored just off the channel and in front of a bridge. I had my anchor beer while ensuring we were secure and I had put out a lot of line. Once we felt good, we loaded into the dinghy and took the long-ish ride back to the dinghy dock to walk around town. “Established in 1709 and incorporated in 1723, Beaufort is the third-oldest town in North Carolina. In 2012, Beaufort was ranked as “America’s Coolest Small Town” by readers of Budget Travel Magazine. Visit pirate hideouts, skulk around the town Blackbeard called home, see where his sunken ship is submerged and see where he met his violent end.“ The town was just opening from the lockdown and since it was a Saturday, there were lots of people out and about. We kept our distance and walked Frank around, checking out the old cemetery and houses around town. On our way back on the dinghy we deviated to an island across the way that is part of the Rachel Carson Coastal Estuarine Reserve. We walked around looking for the wild horses that live on the island, which we saw one while looking for a place to anchor. We did not see one this time however, so we went back to the boat and spent the rest of the night comfortably at anchor.
Day 2- Today was Sunday, Mother’s Day. We have been having regular Zoom calls on Sundays with family and friends. We decided to go to town and get lunch (pizza) and take it to the island Reserve. We ordered online and picked up our pie, then took the dinghy over to the Reserve. We ate the pizza and had our calls, then went hiking to find the elusive horses. Lauren even brought an apple to share if we found one! We hiked for a while and finally tracked one down. I was able to get close for a picture, but it wanted nothing to do with me or the apple. I tried tossing a piece to him (or her) and it ran. I followed it and tried to entice it again…it started to come toward me which now made me nervous… I dropped the apple and headed back to Lauren who was holding Franks leash. He really wanted to go see the horse, but we didn’t think that would turn out too well. We hiked our way back to the dinghy and finally back to the boat. Dinner was made and we did our routine of looking at our next destination and weather forecast. Tomorrow we are going to go to Oriental, North Carolina…