Beaufort and Oriental North Carolina

We made it through some crazy thunderstorms in Southport with lot's of rain, wind, thunder, lightning and more wind!  Once it all died down it was nice to enjoy the town and sun again.

 A unique store in town that had a huge array of holiday decor and more! It was housed in this historic home and had a wide variety of candy and antiques too.

 Can you find Ryann in this photo?  This was her favorite room!

 A tug hauling this super long dredging equipment.

 We made our way to Wrightsville Beach and enjoyed some beach time. It was windy and a bit cool, but no one seemed to care.  The pole Craig is holding might help ward off the red fox and alligators known to the area where signs were posted to be aware!

 Kids were proud of their many beachcombing treasures. It's fun to dinghy to beaches where no one has been in awhile. 

 Of course it wouldn't be an adventure without a sunken vessel in the picture.

 Boarding the boat is now a thrill to be had by the girls.

 After a very long day Jaxon fell asleep on the dinghy, woke up to walk to the aft deck and then continued to sleep for another hour. You can see his left hand suspended in the air too.

 This house was located on a peninsula and had its own lighthouse.

 Camp LeJuene was right on the ICW and was running a large amount of helicopters in the area when we passed.

 We shared an anchorage one night with Jack and Lynn aborad Felix at Spooners Creek. It was the most perfect spot and really protected from all winds. It was right off of a large body of water called Bogue Sound.

 We stopped in Beaufort and stayed at Town Creek Marina where we did a major provisioning, cleaning, laundry and gas fill up.  That night we watched another large thunderstorm with over 30 knot winds.

 In the Town Creek there were many many derelict boats in the harbor. Notice the words Water World on the side of this one.

 We took the bikes into the town of Beaufort as we walked through some shops, down the waterfront area and into their maritime museum. They had a lot of information about Blackbeard and an activity to keep the kids interested.

 The historic town had this old jail, an apothecary, many old restored homes and a very old cemetery.

 The anchor at the museum.

 This old burying ground was deeded to the town in 1731. The pictures do not do it justice.

 This little girl was buried in a barrel keg.

 We eventually made it to the town of Oriental where we stayed at the free dock right downtown.     

 This is the Pamlico Sound that we'll make our way up over the next few days.

 The old museum gave us a lot of history on this little town. It covers a 12 block area and has over 3,900 registered sailing vessels here and only 800 residents.  Oriental is North Carolina's Sailing Capital!

 

 The kids loved the opportunity to get back on the scooters and run around town.  It is by far the friendliest place we've visited and everyone stops to talk or say hello. We've already met a lot of great people.  This weekend over 900 cyclists are touring the area as they do every year.  

I have more to write and wish I could, but it's taken me so long to post this much as we don't have power and have had limited cell and wi-fi coverage lately.  I will try to post again soon....Thank you all for your continued support!