May 24-25, Beaufort, NC

Barge traffic - we move WAAAAY over

Nautical village of Beaufort has lots of shops, several restaurants and a nautical museum featuring local boat building and a big shell collection

Fishing is pretty good in Beaufort - Bluefin Tuna in the winter, and shrimp in the spring, summer and fall.

Traveled 75 miles up the Intercoastal to Beaufort, NC (pronounced "BOW fort"). Trip was slow because of some low bridges (12' clearance and we need 21') with restricted opening schedules (only open on the hour) so we had two waits of about 20-30 minutes.
Beautiful day on the water and we had several glimpses of the open ocean only a short distance over the sand dunes. A beautiful and interesting day. Arrived at the Beaufort town docks, again right downtown in the heart of the small shopping and restaurant area. A lively town in the evening as it cools off with live music at two of the outdoor restaurants which can be heard on the boat. Very nice and they stopped playing about 10pm. Have run into several boats and crews we have seen and met before on the trip. Breakaway is here; we met them in St Augustine. They have completed the "loop" and are going to the Chesapeake to spend the summer. They said they were not ready to go home (to Southern Calif). Their website www.breakawayyacht.com is awesome.
Spent the day touring Beaufort and Morehead City and did some housekeeping including replacing our freezer on the flybridge. Do not know what happened but it quit. So got a new one. Found the freezer, rented a truck, got the freezer to the boat, got rid of the old one. Feel like I accomplished something with all that.
Chuck and Charlotte drive up from Fla to join us for a week on the boat. They arrived Friday and joined us at 5:30 on the boat for a tour with Charlotte's uncle Frank Styers and cousin, Laura Ann. They will stay overnight with Charlotte's family and will join us for the trip north on Sat.
We really like the marina environment here in Beaufort. Small marina, right downtown and parallel to the main street. Met lots of other boaters here as everyone seemed to hang out at the dock ready for conversation. Reminds me of the best docks for socializing in the Bahamas. We saw two wild horses on the island across from Beaufort as we left the docks and motored through the harbor toward Morehead City.

Welcome to Beaufort from Charlotte's NC family. L-R Chuck, Charlotte's uncle Frank Styres, Linda, Charlotte, Charlotte's cousin Laura Ann, Owen