Gulf Stream adventure

Roger Hughes sails his brigantine schooner Britannia along the largest of the world’s currents

- Roger Hughes

Earlier this year we sold our home near Orlando, Florida, and moved north to the New Bern, Pamlico Sound area of North Carolina. Pamlico Sound is a very large inland sea, protected from the Atlantic rollers by a row of outer banks that stretch from Kittyhawk (of Wright Brothers fame), south beyond the quaint seaside villages of Ocracoke and Cape Hatteras, to Lookout Point.

The actual Sound is about 60 miles long east to west and 20 or so miles wide north to south, with many tributary rivers and old colonial towns like Bath, which was the first capital of North Carolina. The Sound is also steeped in pirate history, and where the Englishman known as Blackbeard roamed and finally met his end.

We had bought a house in Fairfield Harbour, halfway up the Neuse River towards New Bern, which was itself once the capital of North Carolina in 1710, as immigrants migrated westward. At Fairfield Harbour the Neuse is a mile wide and feeds the western end of Pamlico Sound. Fairfield’s man-made harbour has a large central lagoon with finger canals, and many houses have their own docks, some with very expensive-looking boats at the bottom of the garden.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Roger Hughes lives near New Bern, North Carolina USA, and has been messing about on sailboats for nearly half a century as a professional captain, charterer and sailing instructor. He has restored and modified of a once run-down 50ft (15m) yacht, including converting the rig from a ketch to a brigantine schooner, with a rollaway square sail on the foremast, along with many more innovations. You can read more on www.schooner-britannia.com

Time to go