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April 7, 2013 Day 331

Southport Marina
Southport, NC
Total miles to date: 5516.6




Love the dolphins that swam past us today!

Yes, we are now in North Carolina! What an interesting day of travel we have had.  We left Barefoot Marina around 8:20 (thanks to Rick on Journey for helping us with our lines).  We found the ICW fairly busy with boaters today - it is Sunday, and the sun was shining. Many homes and condos line the ICW much of the way which adds to the view. We only needed one swing bridge to open for us and we got right through with no wait. In fact the bridge tender was waiting for us as two other boats were just ahead of us.




Had to include the pink house! Hard to miss!

There were many rowing teams out today!

 

Seriously aground in the Shallotte Inlet

 

The sailboat was aground in the Lockwood Folly Inlet
and we were right behind the Trumpy and the Catamaran





There are some tricky areas along this part of the ICW which are seriously affected by tide and shoaling. The Shallotte Inlet is very shallow and a sailboat was completely grounded – he must have wandered out of the channel for some reason.  The same is true for the Lockwood Folly Inlet which we hit at low tide.  A sailboat was aground and the two boats in front of us started to pass him. The Trumpy made it through ok, but the Cat had problems and started to back up which meant we had to do the same. One of our engines stalled out and we were churning up sand, but Bill pulled us out of it and we were able to continue on.

We arrived at the Southport Marina at 2:10 and tied up on their face dock.  We talked to some of the boaters and then set off to see the town of Southport. We heard it is a lovely town and we were not disappointed. There are many homes dating back to the late1800’s. Southport lies at the mouth of the Cape Fear River and has a nice waterfront with restaurants, parks, marinas, shops, and homes. Since it is Sunday there were only a few shops open but we stopped at some of them to browse.  The movie, Safe Haven, was filmed here and we found the restaurant used in the film. 

The Old American Fish Company
(under a different name in the movie)

One of many lovely Southport homes

We finally got back to our boat around 5pm and were so glad we had a roast in the crock pot waiting for us! We were tired from our long day of travel and long walk!

Tomorrow’s plans (originally to go to a marina in Wrightsville Beach) may now include an anchorage instead.  We plan to depart around 7am.