Woke up bright and early to go fishing and had a great time while we were out in the ocean. It was the farthest out into the sea Bethany and I had ever been. The catch included 1 sailfish, amberjack, tuna, shark (!), red snapper, triggerfish and sea bass. That night we had some tasty fish tacos with Captain Andy. you can check him out here. Thanks for getting us together papa!

Thinking that the day spent fishing would be a rest day, we were surprised to wake up very sore from the crazy fighting fish. Instead of having a 25 mile paddle to Ocracoke, we arrived in Hatteras Village and decided to take a night in a hotel. That was another good time. The next day we left and had an easy paddle along the shallow waters of the sound to Ocracoke. We both about jumped out of our boats when we startled a huge ray in the shallows… It was massive. Upon arriving in Ocracoke we were surprised to have have to ask three places before we found one that would store our boats for us? The place that ended up keeping our boats was Ride the Wind Surf Shop. Thanks! Since we had never spent time in Ocracoke we took a day to wander around and sight see.

We left the Island and had a short paddle to the old Portsmouth Village. Can we say mosquitos? Luckily the park office had full bug suits that you could wear… It was a short visit and I would like to go back and check it out in the non buggy season. The day wore on and we paddled on and made camp right as darkness fell. It was more fun to paddle all day than spend any more time than necessary on the islands since we saw what the bugs were like that day. The next day we had every intention of paddling to Shackleford banks and then to Morehead city, but when we spoke with Brenda who we would be staying with when we arrived, she told us they were closing the waterway down the next day due to boat races… Great. Bethany and I made the decision to try to paddle and reach morehead city. Once again as darkness fell we arrived at their boat ramp. The paddle from Ocracoke to Morehead was the most paddling we had done in two days, close to 60 miles. We were tired but thankfully Brenda and Chris (If you need a boat check them out at Boats Inc. ) let us stay in their condo right by the beach! Thanks! We woke up that morning and had a great time on their boat and watched the Jet Boat races. It was a spectacle! That night we got a surprise visit from Bethany’s grandparents. We were glad to see them and we got to spend the next day playing tourist around a section of beach that I had never visited. This morning we woke up with every intention of paddling but Bethanys tooth had been bothering her and instead of making someone else drive to the coast to pick us up, we decided to get a ride back to Raleigh with Bethanys grandparents.

Tomorrow we head back to Morehead city and will push on to Key West. Hopefully our teeth issues our over and we can get outta nc and keep moving south!

Dan