Boating, Fishing, and Travel Information for Beaufort, NC

Most of the facilities are along the southwest waterfront of Beaufort. There are also facilities near the northern end of Radio Island. Machine shops in Beaufort can make engine repairs.
Navigation:
Click the “Map View” button above to see a chart of this harbor.
Beaufort Inlet is about 220 miles southwestward of the Chesapeake Bay entrance and the same distance northeastward of Charleston. It is the approach to Morehead City Harbor, the most important coastal harbor between Cape Henry and the Cape Fear River. The ports of Morehead City and Beaufort are on the west and east sides of the harbor, respectively.
A Federal project provides for a channel 47 feet deep over the ocean bar at Beaufort Inlet, thence 45 feet to a turning basin off the North Carolina State Ports Authority Terminal at Morehead City with 45 feet in the turning basin’s east leg and 35 feet in the west leg; thence a 12-foot channel and turning basin westward along the Morehead City waterfront as far as Tenth Street; thence a 6-foot channel to the Intracoastal Waterway in Bogue Sound. The entrance and main channels and all of Beaufort Inlet are subject to continual change. Lighted ranges and lighted buoys mark the main channel. Lights, buoys, and daybeacons mark the minor channels.
Heavy swells build up in Beaufort Inlet Channel with northerly or southerly winds, making boating hazardous and entry or departure of ships difficult during unfavorable tidal conditions.
Beaufort, on the eastern side of Morehead City Harbor, has considerable fishing and boatbuilding activity. It is reached from Beaufort Inlet through Beaufort Channel and from the Intracoastal Waterway through Gallants Channel.
A Federal project provides for channel depths of 15 feet in Beaufort Channel, 12 feet in Gallants Channel from the Intracoastal Waterway to the first turn just north of Town Creek, thence 15 feet in the lower part of the channel to the junction with Beaufort Channel, and thence 15 feet from the junction through a 12-foot basin in front of the town of Beaufort, and thence through Taylor Creek to a point 0.2 mile westward to Lenoxville Point. The channels are subject to shoaling between dredging, and lesser depths may be found. The channels are well marked by lights, buoys, and daybeacons. A submerged groin extends southward between the westerly edges of Beaufort Channel and the easterly row of dolphins at the southeastern end of Radio Island.
Beaufort is connected by a highway bridge across Gallants Channel to Radio Island and thence to Morehead City by bridges over the Intracoastal Waterway. The minimum clearance is 13 feet for the bascule bridge over Gallants Channel. An overhead power cable close northward of the highway bridge has a clearance of 77 feet.