Morehead City & Beaufort, NC

 TRAVEL DAY 33 - Mile Hammock Bay to Morehead City

April 13, 2023

5.30 Hours/40.1 Miles

    We left the anchorage early in an attempt to catch the Onslow Beach Bridge opening. We were too late, we saw the open bridge, radioed & asked if they would wait for us. "Capt'n, I'll open again at 8:30". Oh well. We eased up to the bridge just as the boat behind us called and asked what the current height was "Looks like 14 foot". Cool, we dropped the top and antennas and slid under by 2'.
 
Morehead City

    We got another perfect day and all was good. I was fighting a small amount of water that kept showing up in the bilge for the past couple of days. My engine was telling me something and I had yet to figure it out. I had Beth at the helm while I went to the engine room to see if I could decipher where the drip was coming from.

Beth practices her boat handling

    When we reached Morehead City Transient Dock, I radioed the dockmaster but didn't include the word "transient" so I got the wrong marina. I didn't realize there was more than one Morehead City Dock. It was a bit of a struggle with the tide going one direction and the wind the opposite but with a little back and forth we pulled into our slip unassisted. My deck crew did a great job. 

Morehead City "Transient" Dock

    We needed to take advantage of the rest of this beautiful day as tomorrow was forecast to be raining with possible thunderstorms. We walked the short hike down the waterfront and grabbed a seafood snack at The Sanitary Fish Market and Restaurant. Not sure if I would have used that name but it had a good reputation. Morehead City is a great stop, they have a ton of restaurants, shops and bars and basically everything we need within walking distance.

King Neptune's 6 Pack Abs

Sanitary Fish Market - The name says it all!

    The next day the front rolled in as predicted and we knew we'd be stuck on the boat, but at least we were at the dock. 

The "calm before the storm"

    I took the time to further investigate my leak. I determined that I had a small leak in my aftercooler (which I had service 2 years ago). I called my diesel gurus for advice on how to handle it. I followed their instruction and took the aftercooler off the engine and disassembled it. I did some internet searches & found that a new OEM Volvo core was over $4,600.00 and none in the US! Yikes, that's not gonna work. Instead, I located an aftermarket core for $2,260.00, still a bummer but less than 1/2 the price.
                         
At least I have tools on the boat!

  We now had a couple of challenges. We couldn't leave the dock and we were stuck in Morehead City for at least a week while we waited for the parts. It also meant we may not reach Norfolk by April 30th for the AGLCA Spring Rendezvous, we would have to pay a penalty if we cancelled. That's what you get if you try to have a schedule on the Loop. There are worse places to be stranded, so now we would really get to explore the area.

    Saturday, instead of motoring to our next stop in Beaufort, NC (pronounced BOWFORT) we caught an Uber there. Beaufort is the forth oldest city in North Carolina, established in 1713.

Confederate Statue

Beaufort Graveyard (Adjoins a church, Cemeteries do not) 

    We walked the town and went to the Farmer's Market, their first of the season. We picked up a few vegetables and items we needed on our grocery list. Two ears of corn made the list, we later soaked them in a bucket of water and grilled for dinner, husk & all! We also took a double decker bus historic tour.

Harvey W. Smith Watercraft Center

Beaufort Waterfront

    Sunday dawned a beautiful day and a great opportunity to see and experience more of Morehead City. We made the decision to attend a local church service, something we don't get to do as often as we would like on the trip. The church was fantastic and we were floored when the sermon centered on Mark 4:35-41 which was about the disciples being in a boat and water was rushing in. We were exactly where we needed to be at this moment in time and the words we heard were just what we needed.

    After church we got to play Pickleball at a nearby park and later some of my favorite food on the planet, Carolina BBQ! In my opinion, there is no other type of BBQ.

There is only one Carolina BBQ

    Monday morning we went back to the Pickleball courts and played for a couple of hours. Our performance was a lot better after a couple of days of play. We'll probably be back again this week for sure.

Pickleball!

    I received an email that the part we needed shipped but wouldn't be here until next Tuesday, so we decided to move the boat to a little better facility that had a few more amenities and gave us a weekly rate which was overall cheaper per day than where we were.   I rigged up my seawater aftercooler pipes in a loop and we were able to run the boat without the aftercooler. The boat ran perfect and we were relieved. At our new dock we got a pump out and then backed into our new week long home at Morehead City Yacht basin. Since I was able to run the boat and get it up to operating temperatures, I did an oil change to make sure we were good to go after the aftercooler core change out. 

After Cooler "Work Around"

    We had a great dinner with the crew of Sea Turtle and Circle Lily, both Loopers and both at our new marina. We've met so many wonderful folks and it's always a fun time.

Pau Hana - Sea Turtle & Circle Lily

    Wednesday we Uber'd to Harker's Island to catch the ferry to go to Shackleford Banks & Cape Lookout. It was a great adventure. We were dropped off at Shackleford Banks to walk & explore the island. The island has more than 100 wild horses, their DNA shows they are of Spanish decent.

Beth at Shackleford Banks

Shackleford Banks Wild Horses

    An hour later the ferry came back to pick us up from the beach and we headed to Cape Lookout. Cape Lookout has one of the many old lighthouses still used today to maintain safe shipping off the Outer Banks and the coast of North Carolina, dubbed "The Graveyard of the Atlantic" for good reason. The shifting banks of sand are an ever-present danger to ships and boats. Not to mention that at one time, German U-Boats prowled these waters during WWII to sink ships and interrupt supply lines.

Cape Lookout Lighthouse and Keeper's House

Cape Lookout Lighthouse

    We rented an ATV to ride out to the beach and down to the cape. This brought back a lot of memories of driving my 4x4 vehicle down the beach to fish for Bluefish, Mackerel & Drum.

Wide open beach

The Adventure Club

    We had a great day of adventure. We found we couldn't Uber back from Harker's Island as it was too remote. I asked an older couple on vacation from South Carolina if I could pay them to take us back to Beaufort. They declined our money and dropped us off on the waterfront. The wife admitted she was a little suspect until her husband said "Honey, criminals don't hang out at National Parks". 

Cape Lookout Lighthouse

    We wrapped up the evening with docktales & dinner with about 12 Loopers in Beaufort. The crew of Runaway was there & we were able to retrieve the water filter I left in Savannah.  As we were eating dinner, I got a text that my engine part had been delivered to Morehead City. Yeehaw, we would be back on the water soon.

Docktales & Dinner

    The next morning, the Dockmaster from Morehead City Transient Dock delivered the part to our marina! I cannot say enough about this guy, he was such a great help. I had the part installed and tested in a couple of hours and we made plans to depart the next day for Oriental, NC. With a little time still left on our hands we Uber'd to Atlantic Beach, the one place nearby we hadn't seen yet.

Atlantic Beach

Mile Hammock Bay to Morehead City, NC

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