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GREENSBORO — By the time the Boy Scouts steered their sea kayaks onto the shore of Ocracoke Island on July 16, they were sunburned, covered in mosquito bites and tired.

The group of Scouts from Troop 101 in Greensboro had completed a four-day adventure of kayaking and paddled across the rough waters of the Ocracoke Inlet in record time.

“I realized how much fun I had, after it was over,” said Steven Buccini, 16, a rising sophomore at Grimsley High School.

The group of 10, Scouts and troop leaders, paddled along the barrier islands, camping at night. A guide from the Pamlico Sea Base led the group. The sea base is run by the Eastern Carolina Council of Boy Scouts.

The Greensboro troop, based at Westminster Presbyterian Church, was the only crew this year to paddle from Harkers Island to Cape Lookout and make it all the way to Ocracoke Island.

“We’d go to sleep with the sun and get up with the sun,” said David Vail, 16, a rising junior at Caldwell Academy.

Each Scout paddled his own narrow, 15-foot-long kayak, using pedals to steer the rudders. They also collected litter along the way and were surprised at the volume of trash that washed up on the islands.

The teens saw dolphins, a sea turtle and lots of birds.

One evening, after paddling for about 12 hours, they pitched their tents on an island smaller than a parking lot.

“It was pretty much a speck of sand,” Buccini said. Hundreds of gulls, pelicans and other sea birds had claimed a nearby island. The nesting animals squawked all night and the stench of rotting fish was strong.

In the end, the Scouts traveled about 76 “kayak miles.” The kayaks couldn’t travel in a straight line along the islands due to sandbars and winds. Most of the time the Scouts paddled, all they could see was open water and duck blinds, small wood structures in which duck hunters hide.

The Scouts’ toughest challenge was crossing the Ocracoke Inlet, the area between Portsmouth and Ocracoke Island. They concentrated on steering and not flipping their kayaks as four-foot waves crashed against the backs and sides of their boats and a strong wind pushed from the side.

The Scouts crossed the inlet in one hour and 27 minutes. Normally, crews need at least two hours to get across, said Reggie Cahoon, reservation director at the sea base.

“They were really well motivated to paddle that fast around that much open water,” Cahoon said.

The teens said they were ready for showers and cold drinks at the campground.

The Scouts, who are among the troop’s older and more experienced members, said they enjoyed the challenge of the trip.

“I’d say this was the most physically demanding trip but also the most fun,” Vail said.

Contact Jamie Kennedy Jones at jamie.kennedy@news-record.com or 449-4610.