Homer Smith

Tuesday June 14

Left the marina around 10 AM.  Nice cool cruise up to Beaufort, North Carolina.  As we got to the turn to go up toward our marina, we were called by Hallelujah another DeFever owner. They warned us not to take the route that they though we were doing because the latest cruising guide said the cut was silted in. We called the marina and they said the route we were on was fine. The other DeFever owner were confused as to where we were going and thought we might be using an unsafe route.  Our route was safe but they did not know that.  We did appreciate the heads up from them.

Safely got to Homer Smith docks marina around 2 o’clock.  This is a pretty new marina. It is only been open for a year. It is run by a father and son team Tony and Matt. They owned a seafood business that is connected to the marina and decided to start the marina up. We came here because they were $1.50 a foot, Instead of the two dollars or to $2.15 that all the other marinas were charging. This also included our electricity, free laundry, and all the ice we wanted.

Tom is in Ice heaven!!!!!!

They had a building that had a mountain of ice in it that they use for packing the seafood and fish that comes in from the boat every day. In other words, the building itself was a giant ice machine. It had a unit on the roof that kept cranking out ice 24/7. They used to own a fleet of boats but sold them and now buy seafood from other fishermen that come into them daily.

After we got settled in, we took our bikes downtown to check out the shopping and bars and restaurants. They had a Scuttlebutt store there so we bought a few books on cruising and anchoring the Chesapeake Bay.

This week there is a big marlin fishing tournament happening in Beaufort and Morehead City called the Big Rock Blue Marlin Tournament. The prize money goes up to $1.9 million dollars. At around 5 o’clock we sat and watched all of the Sport fish boats come into the marina right in front of the dockside bar and restaurant.  It was really interesting to see all the boats come in with their cleaning crews cleaning like crazy while underway and how the captains just backed swiftly into their slips with ease.

That evening we had tuna that we bought from Matt. We got 4 pounds of fresh caught tuna for $20 (they gave us a deal).  Tom, being the cook, chef and restaurant owner that he used to be fixed a great meal