Day 188 - April 19, 2013: Morehead City, NC

With another major storm front reaching from Canada to Florida and approaching from the west, we decided to move early in the morning into the safety of Portside Marina which was 3 miles west in Morehead City. The forecast included severe storm warnings and possible tornadoes coming overnight.

When we arrived, we docked near a 153 ft. blue-hulled three-story yacht, with a crew of seven, that had been towed in with engines and generators out of commission due to fuel problems. The salt water chambers of the heat exchanger that cools the diesel fuel had apparently corroded through, causing sea water to enter the fuel. Workers were busy draining and cleaning the 20,000 gallon fuel tanks and using a hoist to replace the heat exchanger. Plus, they will need to clean all the injectors on the engines and generators. This repair will be quite expensive, and I was told the owner, who is waiting for the boat to be delivered up north, is not happy.

153 ft. yacht in for repairs

New fuel heat exchanger

Since we are in port for at least three days, we rented a car to explore the area. Our first stop was Fort Macon, which was the third fort built here to protect Beaufort from attacks by sea. It was completed in 1834 and was only under attack twice, first by the South and then by the North, during the Civil War. This fort was fully restored and is now a North Carolina State Park. The history and life in the fort was depicted in a series of rooms, with decorations and audio narrations.

Entrance to Fort Macon

Interior of Fort Macon

Our next stop was the beachfront along Atlantic Beach, where we watched bathers and surfers enjoying the high waves.

Ocean at Atlantic Beach, NC

Finally, we went to the NC Aquarium at Pine Knoll Shores. This aquarium takes you through aquatic animal life in regions from the NC mountain peaks to the ocean shores. The largest aquarium tank in NC is here and holds over 2.5 million gallons of water and 200 species of fish. We really enjoyed the exhibits here and found it very educational.

Aquarium at Pine Knoll Shores

Lionfish

Over 2.5M gallon aquarium