Long Run to Belhaven, NC -- June 26

We weighed anchor and were underway before nine this morning, figuring we would have a long day to get to our targeted destination of Belhaven (110 miles away). We stayed there two years ago at a marina connected with an old mansion and liked it very much -- especially the free golf carts and washers and dryers. We called and the marina is still in business, with the same great amenities but with new owners who have added an on-site restaurant that gets good reviews. So we booked our reservation and got underway. 

We ran into a challenge within our first hour -- the old Onslow Beach swing bridge within Camp Lejeune. The bridge is owned and operated by the Marine Corps but only opens on the hour and half-hour and is notoriously slow and unreliable. We didn't want to wait given the long day ahead of us and we made the 12-foot clearance by lowering the mast and Bimini top and ducking. We would have bumped our heads if we sat up straight. 

We would have cut it very close on fuel if we ran all the way to Belhaven without stopping for more at some point along the way, so the Captain made some phone calls and found a boatworks just north of Morehead City that would sell us diesel for $3.75/gal if we bought 100 gallons. It turns out this boatworks caters to big offshore fishing boats and were finishing pumping 945 gallons of diesel fuel into such a boat as we were just getting started. The guy running the fuel dock charged us just $3.42/gal, which was probably what the big fishing boat paid. I talked to one of the crew members of the fishing boat and he said they had 2300 gallons of fuel capacity and burned 150 gal/hour at cruising speed (which is probably around 25 mph). This makes us feel a lot better about our 12.5 gal/hr burn rate. 

We ran past the Port of Morehead City before we got fuel. The only ship there was the Saimaagracht, built in 2005 and run by the Spliethoff Group out of Amsterdam, who have a fleet of about 120 ships. The two big boxy structures along the starboard side of this ship are side loading doors. You can see a short video of them in action on the Spliethoff website. 

We saw this unusual looking vessel just before our fuel stop. Looking up the FPB 642 number online we figured it is one of a limited series of aluminum vessels designed and built in New Zealand by Circa Marine. This is a 64-footer with a cruising range of 5,000 nautical miles. One could probably buy a used one for a few million dollars. But think of the places you could go with that kind of cruising range.

We end with a sunset view from our dock at Grand Manor Marina in Belhaven. We spent a lot of time talking with the new owner, who bought the place 13 months ago from a group of local investors. The way he described it, the old mansion (built in 1904 by a timber magnate) was falling apart but the locals didn't want to see it go, so a dozen people from the business community bought it in 2014 and turned it into a wedding and event venue. The new owner and his wife (who we also chatted with) are obviously thrilled with their purchase and have fixed up the place considerably since our visit two years ago. The first mate gave this marina a five star rating on Google. It was that good!