Cruise to Bath, NC

We set sail the 13th of October for Bath, NC, The perfect winds, which have eluded us for most of our cruising, pushed us gently from Oriental to Bath Creek, where the town claims to be the oldest in North Carolina. High banked and about a 1/2 mile wide, the creek narrows at the entrance to the Pamlico River and stopped, for us, at the highway bridge, in town. We enjoyed a lovely sunset in peaceful waters here.

Cookie's sister, Cynthia and husband Jim, met us there and we spent 2 days at the Bath Motel and Marina, a three room resort with one of the three rooms occupied by the handy man, who did a mediocre job of cleaning the restrooms. But the owner was cheerful and nice and included in the $1 a foot cost was a free mug advertising the Bath Motel and Marina and historic Bath. We had a great time exploring Bath, with a informative visitor's center and 3 homes from the 1700s available for tour,and the tales of colonial history and Blackbeard, the town's most famous resident. Having company aboard also meant having a car available and we visited other towns.


We saw Cypress Landing, a nice community with a great marina just 4 inches too shallow. Our boat would need boots to tiptoe through the muddy bottoms there. We saw Washington, a potentially lovely town with a nice riverfront, a few good restaurants, and manyt sad empty storefront windows. We happened upon a lovely, wine/cheese, bookstore where we met the owner and learned of his "other place" in Bellhaven. So the next day, we drove to Bellhaven for a fabulous lunch at the Wine, Words, and Back Bay Cafe, a combination wine shop, bookstore and gourmet restaurant. If you get to Bellhaven, it's worth a stop, homemade bread and soups, so good you can taste the garden and a crab quiche that melts in your mouth.


We returned to Washington for dinner at Pias for an equally good dinner, with Manchego encrusted grouper. There we joined friends oif Cynthia and Jimmy's for the evening.

The next day was a 6 hour sail, flying downwind on a broad reach to Broad Creek, a lovely anchorage, (except for the mosquitos)with lots of room and a view of forests and the winking lights from a few elegant houses on the shores around us. We completed the journey back to Oriental with a screaming jib only race up the Neuse River with 15-22 mph winds. Happy to tell you, we blew past the other boats, including those which were motor sailing.