June 7-10, 2020. Wrightsville Beach and Beaufort, NC

6/13/2020

Cape Fear Lighthouse

Only 35 miles on the ocean to the Cape Fear Inlet. Grateful to be going a bit fast with no bridges although the scenery is not as good as the ICW. Nice rolling 3' seas made for a decent passage and smooth coming into the inlet, which can get sort of hairy. Got a place to stay in Wrightsville Beach at Bridge Tender Marina gas dock (wish we knew about the great anchorage around the corner). This is a very popular tourist area and Sunday afternoon, 95 out and SO many people & boats. There's some nice beaches when the tide is low and people love boating in this area.

Note the small boat, which we'd seen a few of, where the outboard is placed inside the boat.

Beaufort, NC

June 8-10. We were going to take the ICW from Wrightsville Beach north but with several bridges with limited openings, no wakes zones, Camp LaJune crossing which typically entails some waiting for training maneuvers, we decided to go out the Masonboro Inlet and went about 75 miles up to Cape Lookout and the Beaufort Inlet. We anchored by 2:30 across from downtown Beaufort. The Big Rock Blue Marlin Tournament is in town and we got to be in the midst of the activity for 2 days as they came in from their day of fishing. Exciting to see these serious fishing boats who are competitively fishing come in after a long day of fishing and show some of their catch. We did not get to see Michael Jordan whose boat Catch 23 was at the main tournament marina in Morehead City, just across the cut.