Friday, April 11, 2014 Still Pushing...On to Morehead City, NC

We decided to haul anchor and leave Mile Hammock Bay by 6:45 am.  Sv/Kokomo got off before us again, but sv/Grey Ghost hailed us and said they weren't leaving so early... they were only going 16 miles to Swansboro so there was no need for them to leave early. When we got to the Onslow Swing Bridge, Kokomo was there waiting. They didn't make it to the 7 am opening so both of us caught the 7:30 am opening together. This swing bridge is so slow in swinging.  It seems to be the longest of all the swing bridges that we've passed through and it takes about 5 minutes to rotate 90 degrees.  This bridge connects Camp Lejeune to the mainland.

Once through this bridge, we are on our way to the Morehead City/Beaufort NC area.  Our destinations is the Morehead City Yacht Basin.  On our way south, we took the fork of the ICW to Beaufort because we wanted to visit that town for a few hours.  Heading north,  we decided we wanted to stay on the westerly side of the ICW and visit  Morehead City.  We have some nice winds between 15 and 20 kts so we get to the marina by 1:00...earlier than we anticipated.  That's good because Kokomo reserved the courtesy car for the four of us for 3:00.  This will give us some time to settle in and relax.

Once we went under the Atlantic Beach Bridge and got near Morehead City we could see many

Morehead City RR and Bridge

boats up ahead in the basin.  They looked as though they were blocking the waterway.  I thought they were dragging or looking for a body!  As we got closer, I could see that these boats were just fishing!  They actually had the ICW blocked.  Well, Chuck had the hammer down (head sail was furled now) and not giving up our course.  Finally, those in our way decided Chuck wasn't going to back down or navigate around them and moved!!!  The Morehead City Yacht Basin is up the Newport River.  Once we get out of the basin, we head up the river and pass under the Morehead City RR Bridge and immediately after, the Morehead City Bridge. The marina is nestled up a private channel. They cater to huge fishing yachts but take transients.

Donna in our courtesy car!

After some down time, Frank, Donna, Chuck, and I, took the courtesy car to Wal Mart.  We split the cost of the car which was $10...not bad.   After shopping, we left the store with quite a few bags.  On our way back to the marina, we stopped for the guys at Ace Marine.   This is really an Ace Hardware that has a huge supply of marine supplies.  The guys enjoyed browsing!  Back to the boat to return the car by 5:00 and to stow our provisions.

We decided to do dinner together.  The marina recommended Floyds and since Rita and David had already eaten there a few days ago, they highly recommended it also.  Floyds is in an old house that supposedly is haunted.  the dining area is in each of the rooms.  We got seated in an upstairs bedroom.   Chuck and I both ordered fried shrimp and flounder with salad or soup and 2 sides.   The food was out of this world!  We had so much food served to us that neither of us could eat it all.  Donna had a steamed medley of fish, crab, oysters, etc backed in waxpaper.  I think this must be their specialty because when we were leaving , serving trays were loaded with this same dish.  Frank got the seafood linguine...they both said their meals were excellent!!

Back to our boats.  Frank's encouraging us to go to the Campbell Creek Anchorage.  We anchored there on our way down and it's a nice quiet spot but I would like to stop at River Dunes again.  We';ll see what tomorrow brings.  We do know some weather with gale force winds are predicted for Monday afternoon....We'll just have to wait and see what tomorrow brings......