We departed the town docks at Beaufort right after dawn, at slack tide. We had to head down the channel past Radio Island, as if we were going out into the Atlantic, and then turn back into the ship channel toward Moorhead City. We had spent almost a week at Beaufort, and wanted to stay longer, but we can't help but notice that it is starting to get really cold at night; we need to get south! We now see dolphins with some frequency, and this day was no exception. After a bit of difficulty deciding which channel was the intracoastal, we joined a stream of boats all heading south. We were, alas, the smallest and slowest boat, and constantly had to move to starboard and slow down to let other boats pass. The channel took us to the New River, which goes right through the huge marine corps base at Camp Lejenue; at times,
the river is closed because the marines are practicing on the artillery range I am happy to report that the marines did not shoot on this day. We anchored for the night in Mile Hammock Bay, a large area that had been dredged so the marines can practice with landing craft. We were one of 23 boats in this beautiful anchorage, in the middle of the Marine Corps, but also, the middle of nowhere.