Carolina Beach, North Carolina

 I left off my last entry with us anchored in the Waccamaw river in South Carolina. We had a very quiet night other than a boat coming by just after dark with their music turned WAY up. Oh well, we just laughed about it. 

We were up and moving just after daylight the next morning, June 6th. We were not sure where we would stay that evening. We were just motoring along the ICW through Myrtle Beach. I had an anchorage picked out, but you never know if that will work. 

We saw many huge homes as we passed through Myrtle Beach, SC.

When we arrived at our anchorage that I had selected at Calabash, we did not like what we saw. The anchorage was off to the side of a very busy inlet to a river up to the town of Calabash. It was still early in the day, so we decided to keep going. Just as we came out of the anchorage, we were passed by another sailboat. "Sweet Karma" is a Maryland boat that we would see many more times on the trip. I made a quick call to the St. James Plantation Marina. They had space for us for the evening, so that became our destination. We arrived right at 5 pm, but could not reach any marina staff, so we had to find our slip and get in to it unassisted. It was a very tight space, but we got it done. It is a very protected marina. It was cool, so we did not need electricity, so our fee for the night was only $57. We had traveled 53.4 nautical miles in 10.5 hours. We saw Sweet Karma at the marina, but did not meet them yet.  That long day set us up for an easy one the next day. 

We took our time getting out of St. James. We motored down the ICW about 5 miles to the Cape Fear Inlet. The Cape fear river is very wide and we had wind from the right direction, so we decided to sail up the river. We were able to shut the engine off for about 2 hours as we slowly moved up the river. It felt great!

Sweet Karma passing us as we slowly sail up the Cape Fear River

Sailing is so much better than motoring.

We then came to the New River, which is the continuation of the ICW heading north. A short distance later through some pretty strong current against us, we were at Carolina Beach. We pulled in and attached to an unoccupied mooring ball. There are a total of 9 balls that you reserve on-line. They were never all used in the 5 nights that we stayed there. The moorings are in excellent shape, which gives us confidence that we can weather a storm. 

The first order of business when we go to a place that has "Beach" in the name is taking Kim to the beach.

Carolina Beach is a beautiful and clean beach. We even went swimming in the strong surf. We walked on the beach every day we were at Carolina Beach. This picture was the only day that the beach felt busy. The weather turned a bit cooler and the beach was empty.

A shot of the mooring field at Carolina Beach. This could be our favorite place we have visited.

 Carolina Beach did have some significance to us. This was our planned destination when we left Marathon on April 30th. We were planning it to take 3 days of sailing in the gulf stream to arrive here. Well, it too only a month and a week. That's OK, we have really enjoyed all of the places we have visited. 

When we arrived in the mooring field, we knew almost every boat there. Some from Marathon, and others that we had met along our travel north. We did finally meet Jim and Kris on Sweet Karma. It was amazing, but they knew our neighbors for the first couple of months that we were in Marathon. Both are from Maryland. 

Carolina Beach is not far from Camp LeJeune, the large Marine base. We saw many Helicopters fly over. We even saw a Osprey tilt rotor. Kim's father worked on this ship late in his career at Bell Helicopter.

V-22 Tilt rotor

We had access to two different dinghy docks. One was very close by that had access to a restroom with outdoor shower and a short walk to the beach. The second one was about a mile away, but got us right in the middle of town with a short walk to attractions like the boardwalk and many restaurants. There was a Publics grocery store about a mile and a half away. We made the walk to get some provisions for the rest of the trip. 

The boardwalk complete with a carnival at the center of Carolina Beach.

We had some beautiful sunsets while we were in Carolina Beach.

The City did fireworks shows a couple of nights each week. Kim loves fireworks, so I had a happy crew.

We really enjoyed our time in Carolina Beach. The combination of the beach and the availability of a city made it a great stop. While we were there we met a young couple, Sklyer and Miranda on "Shoot the Breeze". Their boat is an Island Packet 350, just a bit newer than our 35. Miranda and I met first as we talked about our boats from one mooring to another. She told me about a great marina up in the Chesapeake Bay. She then said that her husband, would drop by a boat card later. He did, but also brought a plate of fresh homemade Chocolate Chip Cookies. Wow, were they good. Sklyer and I talked a bit more about this marina called Southall Landings Marina in Hampton, VA. That brief conversation changed our path. I did some checking on line and it looked like exactly what we were looking for. I called and they had space for us. At $310/month for a 45 foot slip the price was right and we decided that was our destination.

After 5 days in Carolina Beach, we were ready to move on and to spend more time away from the hustle and noise of a city. We had a lot of ground to cover to get to the Chesapeake Bay. I will tell you what we did next, in my next entry.