Mike and Patty's Great Loop Adventure 2018-2019

Topsail Island Marina in Surf City, North Carolina to Homer-Smith Marina in Beaufort, North Carolina

Day #312: From last night I beat Mike at cribbage. The two of us were up at 5:00 A.M. to prepare for departure. The engines were started at 5:45 A.M. and were underway at 5:50 A.M. At 7:30 A.M. "Parrot Bay" was at New River which was the first shallow area for the day which meant that there need to be attention paid to navigation as to not run aground. At 8:02 A.M. "Parrot Bay" just made the 8:00 A.M. opening of the Onslow Beach Swing Bridge. After clearing the Onslow Beach Swing Bridge "Parrot Bay" was in the area used by Camp Lejeune but there was no live firing going on today so "Parrot Bay" was able to proceed through the bridge. There were targets that were visible but other than that it was quiet. At 8:17 A.M. "Parrot Bay" was at Brown's Inlet another shallow area but no issues navigating. At 9:30 A.M. "Parrot Bay" passed Swansboro, NC. Lots of pleasure craft, shrimping boats and fishing boats as "Parrot Bay" got near Moorehead City and Beaufort. This was another one of those spots when you wish that you had a blinker on a boat as it would be really helpful to let other boats know when you need to make your turn. At 1:15 P.M. "Parrot Bay" was at Homer-Smith Marina where the black water tank was pumped out before heading to her slip C-9 after traveling 60.5 miles (3,525 miles total for the trip). Mike and I will be keeping the boat here at Homer-Smith Marina so that we can make a trip back home to Michigan next weekend for Maria's (our niece) confirmation. The two of us are both happy that we arrived today at the marina as we were able to get our travel in before thunderstorms move in tonight through Monday. Tony, the owner here at the marina was having issues with their new computer system so we will need to wait until Monday to pay for our stay. After a few boat jobs where completed the two of us headed up to the flying bridge for happy hour. The two of us then headed to showers that is located in the Homer-Smith Seafood warehouse, this is also a part of the business here you can buy fresh shrimp and fish at the marina when the boats come back in for the day. Mike and I had dinner onboard the boat; turkey and cheese sandwiches. After dinner was completed it was time for reading and blogging.

Beautiful pink home.

"Jessica Marie" is used for marine research.

The green marker should not be surrounded by land.

This is what Mike and I heard about at the talk in Southport and they got to see it first hand.

Onslow Beach Swing Bridge the bridge tender waited a couple of minutes to allow the "Parrot Bay" to get there for the 8:00 A.M. opening (WHEW!).

Just after the bridge this is the sign that Mike and I saw as we entered Camp Lejeune.

Mike and I knew that there were no live exercised as Mike had called last evening to check.

Lots of signs!

Interesting that I saw a fisherman out fishing in Camp.

Watch tower at Camp Lejeune.

Lots of targets.

Hurricane damage.

Beautiful more along the ICW.

Another beautiful home.

Looks like more hurricane damage.

Shrimping boat grounded Mike and I were thinking that this may have been another causality from the hurricanes.

Another beautiful home love the spiral staircase.

Very sad sight today. Mike and I came upon two BoatUS boats trying to help this sailboat that was out of the channel in 2-3 feet of water. The lady was on the bow of the boat and the gentleman was sitting in the cockpit and waved sadly at Mike and as we carefully went by all three boats.