Beaufort, NC

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We were out of the canal and in the sound when we woke up. We'd already anchored off Fort Macon State Park. The State Port at Morehead City was the view from our balcony. So much for the most beautiful anchorage you've ever seen promised by Harold as a fair trade for the half-hour tender ride each way to Beaufort. They carry a large open boat hanging off the back of Independence and it is our tender. They say it will carry 40-something. We watched it leave with 20-something at 8:45 am for the day's only excursion. I can't see them getting twice that number on there. I believe there were only excursion participants onboard. Annie had said if they could accommodate non-tour participants they would but I don't think that happened. The next tender to town was scheduled for 10 am departure. We saw it coming back and went down to the dining room hall to wait. A couple of the tender hands we'd talked to earlier asked us to come on through with them. We did not want to sit out there bobbing and waiting 10 minutes but were glad we did. No announcement was made. No one went back to the hallway to see if there were other passengers. A woman we had breakfast with had told us she was going on that tender but she either missed it or changed her mind. Good news is that we spotted 6 wild horses on Carrot Island on the ride in to town!

We started at the National Park Visitor Center almost across the street from the public dinghy dock where we landed. We got a map and the ranger showed us her photos of Florence flooding. Several of the Front St. businesses have not yet reopened. We walked in and through most of the open shops on Front St. though. We had lunch at Clawson's. Clay got fried oysters and I had an exceptionally good grilled cheese sandwich with ranch dip. The highlight of Beaufort for us was the Maritime Museum. It has displayed artifact recovered from the shipwreck of Blackbeard's Queen Anne's Revenge. We had heard about it but it was closed last time we were here so it was our 1st priority. We walked back to the dinghy dock on the other side of the street. We went in those shops. We stopped for ice cream. We made sure we were early for the 3pm return. There was only 1 other passenger. There were 4 dinghies tied up and no room for our big open boat. They waved and pointed down the street. Clay followed them. I waited with the woman until we saw the boat disembark its 4 passengers. We went a block or so down to meet the tender. The last tender back leaves town at 4:30pm. We are set to depart our anchorage at 9:30pm.

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