Wanderers : Belhaven to Beaufort

Left Belhaven Saturday morning for a 2 1/2 hour ride to Oriental. Along the way, we stopped at RE Mayo Seafood in Hobucken for fuel. It was literally right on the ICW with good fuel prices and fresh-off-the-boat seafood! This was our first time getting fuel after traveling a little over 480 NM. We still had plenty of fuel to go farther but I like to play it safe. We added 200 gallons and they had nice high-speed pumps. After fueling up, we went inside to buy some shrimp -- both frozen (head off) and fresh (head on). You can dock at RE Mayo for .40 cents a foot and that includes electricity and wifi. The docks aren't anything special and there is nothing to do but would make for a perfect, almost free, stop for a night.

Filling up. 200 gallons!

Inside RE Mayo

Sharon shrimp shopping.

Fresh shrimp - heads on.

The womens restroom.

This is meant to be a joke.

After RE Mayo, we continued south and stopped at Oriental on the Neuse River. The Neuse is known to be very rough in bad weather. Fortunately, it was nice and calm for our trip. Oriental has two free town docks along with a marina or two and some anchorages. Each town dock only has room for 3-4 boats. We managed to snag a free spot between a sailboat and break wall in very tight maneuvering. Thankfully, someone saw us coming in and helped Sharon with the lines. You can stay at each dock for 48 hours but there is no electricity and you are not allowed to run your generator (like that stopped me for some heat and top off the house batts!). There were several shrimp boats all around us. We ran into friends we met in Belhaven, Joe and Mona. They were only about six slips down from us at a marina. Oriental was nice with a few restaurants, coffee shop, provisioning store (marine store +), etc.

View from our bow.

Free slip at town dock.

Shrimp boats

The next morning, we headed out and went to Beaufort (pronounced - BOH-fert). Beaufort has been our favorite stop so far. We stayed at Homer Smith's Docks and Marina which was recommended by a couple we met in Edenton. They have nice floating docks, free washer and dryer (good luck finding them available), free onspotwifi, courtesy car and all the free ice you could possibly need. Downside is only one restroom/shower. After docking, we walked around town and had dinner/drinks at Finz -- a nice local bar/restaurant. Around the corner was the Backstreet Pub another local bar very different from Finz's. Craft beer on tap and a nice to fire. The next day we checked out stores, borrowed the marina courtesy car and checked out Morehead City. We're glad we went to Beaufort. It had a lot more charm than MHC. We had lunch at Spouters on the water -- the weather was so perfect we had a glass of wine (Sharon) and beer (Rob) for 'dessert'. Later we connected with Joe and Mona for $2 cheeseburgers! at Royal James Cafe. A total dive bar/pool hall. It just doesn't get any better!