Beaufort was a treat as always. Before and after our Marina stop we anchored right across from the town so we could easily dinghy in to walk the dog and go get dinner. The anchorage is tight but decent holding and is a well enforced no wake zone. At least one of the boats we saw there when we left to go to the Marina had elected to ride out Erin at anchor there.
There is a lot of history in the area. Especially of the maritime variety. Queen Anne’s Revenge (Blackbeard’s ship) ran aground near the inlet and the shipwreck is still underwater there. The local museum has artifacts on display that were carefully retrieved and preserved as part of an ongoing excavation project.
We enjoyed waking around and looking at the beautiful houses, going to the local coffee shops and restaurants and visiting a lovely Saturday morning market, but what might’ve been the most important item on the agenda was getting a LOT of laundry done at the Marina! Our washing machine on Avion is teeny tiny and we don’t have a dryer. Marinas with free laundry machines are a bit of a rarity so we took full advantage.
Once we were getting close to a reasonable weather window for rounding Cape Hatteras we headed out to Cape Lookout to anchor for a night. It’s only a couple of hours sailing from Beaufort but makes for an easier departure when it’s time to leave. It’s also a very pretty and protected anchorage. We anchored close to Shackleford banks; home to a herd of wild horses. The land that was all around us, including Shackleford Banks, is part of the Cape Lookout National Seashore and is only accessible by boat. The herd is over 400 years old and it is unknown how the horses got there in the first place but genetic research has shown they have Spanish origins.
Dogs are allowed on the island as long as they are leashed and you keep a good distance from the horses so we dinghied over to go see them. Our anchorage neighbours were also walking their dog on the beach and were planning on heading around Hatteras the next day too so we chatted about plans for a bit. This was much to Kata’s disappointment as she just wanted to go straight over and see the horses!
After watching the horses graze from a respectful distance we got back in the dinghy to go visit the island with the lighthouse and find a beach without horses that Kata could have a bit more freedom to run around on and get some energy out before the passage.
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