A beautiful sunrise to greet me doing down Snow’s Cut from the campground. Left at 6:00 AM this morning.The first inlet I came to had a nice sunrise also – the current was still with me at this point. There were several inlets I passed on today’s journey.The second inlet – like yesterday, as I approached the inlets the current was against me but as I passed them I was aided by the current.Passing the bridge at Wrightsville NC – originally this was to be today’s stop, but I made such good progress yesterday, I could continue on to the New River Inlet anchorage.A dredge partially in the channel working on the areas that are shoaling in.Another inlet, just about to get the current assist…It was a really beautiful calm day for the most part – warmed up from 55 degrees this morning to 75 here.The next inlet – you can see the ocean waves out there.Another example of the difference in chartplotters – the Garmin shows I just left land, and Navionics shows me in the channel with plenty of depth.Through the opening here, I could see the ocean waves breaking far away probably on the beach.Before I got to the anchorage I had to negotiate the New River Inlet opening. This has has some bad shoaling, so the channel is moving around all the time. Last year when I came through with Catitude, I ended up in less than 4 feet of water for a short time – kind of scary. This time, I had some prior knowledge and knew what to expect, so it was not bad. But, you can see that the path through the inlet does not necessarily follow the markers – I had good water all the way through it.Approaching the anchorage for the day – never been here before, but it looks good. I made really good time today – the current was mostly in my favor. I average about 7 mph – doesn’t sound like much, but the boat cruises at 6.5 mph and it takes time to leave the morning marina slowly and enter the evening destination slowly as well.A view of the boat behind me in the anchorage, and the shore of Camp Lejeune – lots of action over there.Another trawler joined us, and in the background you can see one of the many military watercraft going in and out of this harbor. That is a landing craft. Several of those came through.This big helicopter was flying around, and I later saw it flying with a huge load suspended below it while it flew over the anchorage.This is where we are at Camp Lejeune – I can hear lots of target practice going on inland with large ordinance (not here, or they would make us leave)…My journey today – a little over 52 miles in 7.5 hours. Tomorrow I will be in Beaufort NC/Morehead City. In 8 days or less, I should be in Norfolk, getting ready to traverse Chesapeake Bay.
