Morehead City, NC

Remember Beaufort, SC? Well, we were headed to Beaufort, NC ( pronounced Bow-fort) next but then read that there was a wooden boat show going on there and most likely a lot of the slips would be taken, so we chose to go to Morehead City, which is a sister city just across the waterway. The run up was very interesting. Along with the usual shallow areas, the ICW runs about 10 mi thru Camp LeJeune, the Marine training area. They train about 40,000 marines here a year!! This area, along the waterway, is used for live fire exercises and is very carefully monitored as they typically have daily exercises when the ICW is closed down for approx 2 hrs. There is a number to call to see what time on any particular day it will be closed, but we were lucky as it was a Sat and there are no exercises on Sat. At the beginning of the area there are large stop light type things that will flash and say it is closed; there is also a patrol boat that will reinforce that point should you be confused. Same situation at the other end. Also guard towers are in place. I am sure it could all be very fascinating, but maybe some other time!?! Also, a large part of the trip was a long run up the Bogue Sound which is the beginning of some bigger water we will be seeing. It runs straight up the coast with a line of very small barrier islands between you and the ocean. The winds were calm, thank God! It was mostly a matter of watching for shoaling at the inlets between the islands and strong current that can come thru them and bounce you off course. Again, Cpt Alan did an awesome job!! It was a long day, but a good one. Our marina in Morehead City was located practically in the middle of the ICW. It was Sun and there had been a big fishing tournament. We arrived around 4 and the fishing boat charters were returning from the ocean. It was a CONTINUOUS parade for about 11/2 hours. Hundreds of boats! Later, on a walk, we saw some of them offloading some really big fish! We only spent the night here and then on to Oriental, NC

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