Morehead City Favorite Tips by grandmaR

Port City

Favorite thing: Morehead City and Beaufort are the Twin Cities of North Carolina. Traditionally, Morehead City is the power boat side and Beaufort is the sail boat side.

Beaufort inlet is an all-weather inlet and Morehead City is one of two NC ports (I think the other one is Wilmington on the Cape Fear River). You can see a little of the inlet on the Beaufort side on my Beaufort pages.

When we transit the ICW, we have to cross the turning basin of Morehead City. (Where the big ships turn around - not a place you want to be if that is happening - I've never witnessed it, but the phrase "squashed like a bug" comes to mind.)

Morehead City is also near Camp LeJeune and Cherry Point Air Base (both US Marine bases). When you travel south from Morehead City on the ICW you sometimes have to stop while they conduct live ammunition exercises at Camp LeJeune.

Fondest memory: We've always sailed past Morehead City, but we have now driven through it in the car. The last couple of times we went through the turning basin, it was full of fishing boats from a fishing tournament.

I have read about it (I read the guidebooks out loud to Bob as we go by). It was named after John Motley Morehead, governor of North Carolina from 1841 to 1845. He envisioned "a great commercial city" where Shepherd's Point intersected with the Newport River and Beaufort Inlet.

Now in addition to being a port, Morehead City is a fishing town, and there is some wreck diving.