Swansboro – At a dock

It's an empty marina, we're ahead of the season

The wind blew like stink last night with gusts in the high 20’s and it was still blowing when we set out in the morning. In fact, it blew all day long in the 20’s, peaking out at 31 kts – right on the nose naturally. At least there were no big waves since we stayed in the ICW. The coast guard issued warnings about trying to use the inlets since the wind was directly out of the easrt and good sized waves were breaking over the inlet bars.

Coming into Swansboro the winds were in the mid 20’s and we needed fuel. We’ve found that you can’t use fenders with a fixed dock that has piers protruding out from the dock itself. The first thing the boat encounters is the vertical piers and if you have fenders out, they will be wedged between the pier and the boat. And as the boat goes forward, the fender stays behind, trapped by the pier – with dire consequences to anything the fender is attached to (like the lifelines). Having learned that lesson, we now go into such a dock with no fenders and then after the first bump (with the boat stopped) put out fenders selectively. Thankfully, all the piers we’ve encountered have been the wooden type and they seem to do no damage to our fiberglass hull. They have been rubbed smooth by previous encounters with boats.

Some mansions leave a lot to be desired in color selection

After filling up, we had intended to anchor out for the night but with the wind still blowing in the 20’s and the promise of more rain, we chickened out and just took a dock for the night. That decision absolutely guaranteed that the weather would clear, the wind would stop and the clouds would part – all of which happened, it is a law of nature. Oh well, we’re secure for the night and heading north again on Saturday.