Sunday 4/20 – Saturday 4/26
With early morning favorable tides and winds, Puffin makes a northerly turn from Southport , heading up the Cape Fear River until making landfall at Carolina Beach State Marina (Mile 297) located at Snows Cut, an easterly landcut that connects Cape Fear River to Myrtle Grove Sound. At the marina state park we hike several trails, one which features the venus flytrap although we're not able to find any. Puffin transits Snows Cut on Monday morning and then continues northerly again, making way for Wrightsville Beach (Mile 283) where we anchor with many other cruisers at Motts Channel. With the beach only a few blocks away, we dinghy to a nice day use dock and enjoy another very pleasant day walking and shelling along the shoreline. That evening however, we experience a whopper of a thunderstorm with the frequency and seemingly close proximity of the lighting quite frightening.( It was really loud!) The next day, we decide to beat feet and head for the relative safety of the Beach House Marina (Mile 260) located at Surf City (Really!, although I'm sure it wasn't the one that Jan & Dean sang about.) We once again hit the beach where we discover that there are shark's teeth to be found.(Royce did find a few small ones.) The next day as we return to Puffin from the beach, we are surprised to find our looper friends, Bill & Jill( Transition) and Jack &Patsy(Honga) tied up at the docks, and later we all go out for drinks and appetizers. While our friends make way early next morning for a long run to Beaufort, N.C. ,we depart later, continuing along the North Carolina ICW characterized by a long barrier strip sheltering us from the Atlantic. As we enter Camp Lejeune, Puffin along with other boaters are stopped for a few hours for artillery and small-weapons firing. With that delay, we modify our plans and arrive late that afternoon to anchor at the channel in Swansboro (Mile 229). At 0'dark thirty, we depart our anchorage for Beaufort as we wish to be there early enough to have our Sunbrella cockpit cover repaired at a local canvas shop. After following the ICW on Bogue Sound, we arrive at the Beaufort Town Docks Marina (Mile 204) where the canvas shop accomodates us and makes our repairs that day. We not only rendezvous with our looper friends from Transition and Honga but are surprised to find Vance & Diane of Passport at the marina. We also make arrangements to meet Tony Bodenheimer, our good friend formerly from our hometown, Port Ludlow, WA who has moved to North Carolina. Later that afternoon after driving for 5 hours, Tony and his wife Lucia arrive at the Beaufort Marina and for the next couple of days we have fun visiting the North Carolina Maritime Museum and Fort Macom, touring the historic district, taking a harbor tour on Puffin, and dining out at some of the local eateries.

Hittin' the Carolina Beach State Park Trails

Far-Out Butterfly at State Park

Workin' Boat

Wrightsville Beach




Surf City!

Surf City Beach

Puffin at Surf City

Surf City area

Tony havin' lunch & a ride aboard Puffin





Lucia helping with lunch

Captain Tony at Maritime Museum