Homer Smith Marina in Beaufort - at a dock

They caught about a dozen blackfin tuna and were cleaning them while being admired by the seagulls

We heard booms in the morning and had premonitions of the ICW being closed due to live ammunition exercises by the Marines. Ann called the Camp Lejeune number and was assured the ICW was not closed.

Our first sunset in awhile. That's the new bridge that now has traffic. They will dismantle the lift bridge

Our first obstacle was the New River "dip route" around a shoaling area in the middle of the channel. I had the GPX route loaded and we saw nothing under 8.0 MLW. Brown's Inlet was similar with a GPX route yielding a minimum of 8.7 MLW. We transited both at dead, low tide.

We planned on stopping at Home Smith Marina since he had a courtesy car and a free laundromat although it's only one washer and one dryer. We wanted to use the car for minor groceries we needed before Hampton. Normally, he has lots of shrimp but not this time. He said the shrimp fleet was still out.

We will be here Saturday to do the minor provisioning we need and then it's off across the Neuse if the weather holds and RE Mayo. PS, tonight we had chicken alfredo, I don't have the recipe since Ann did it from memory.