It is a long drive from Illinois to the Outer banks of North Carolina, but it was well worth it. The Honda Pilot with Thule racks did a great job with the QCC 500 and the CD Solstice. I was able to average 63 mph for the trip with 17 mpg. My only improvement on the rig would have been to use stainless wire and turnbuckles in front...to improve visibility. By the way, anybody have a good idea on how to get high-speed bug splotches off the bow of a boat? Our first put in was around the Oregon Inlet at the north end of the island group. There were a number of small islands that were easy to spot and visit. The only problem was that the water was shallow and when the wind kicked up, there were some "interesting" short frequency waves. I would not recommend spending much time on the lee side of Hatteras Island. It is pretty boring. On the windward side, it was also pretty similar, with some good low surf. We stopped off at the Pea Island nature reserve and talked to a volunteer there who was an avid paddler. She gave us some great directions to a place to stay and paddle further south at Hammock Beach/ Bear Island. It is about 30-40 minutes south of Beaufort,NC. The put in at the park was a little sketchy since the beach was covered with oyster shells. Not good for pretty hulls. Once in the water, we followed a marked trail with numbers through the salt marshes out to the island. We saw more birds here than in a zoo. Paddling through the marshes was just like doing a maze in a boat. We could never see more than a couple of hundred yards in front of us. On top of that, we had to deal with little sand bars, tidal currents and fish bumping our boat. Once we got to the island, we were blown away. The state of North Carolina has invested a TON of money into the place and it is empty. The camp sites are beautiful and the beach is pristine. My wife found 2 whole Sand Dollars without much work. The surf was moderate and there appeared to be no heavy currents. The moral of the story is to find locals. They KNOW! Best Regards, Tony Reynes [demime 0.92b removed an attachment of type text/x-vcard which had a name of Tony Reynes.vcf] *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - Any opinions or suggestions expressed here are solely those of the writer(s). You must assume the entire responsibility for reliance upon them. All postings copyright the author. Submissions: PaddleWise_at_PaddleWise.net Subscriptions: PaddleWise-request_at_PaddleWise.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************
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