NORTH CAROLINA - WILMINGTON AND WRIGHTSVILLE BEACH

South Carolina was fun, but we were done with the bugs.  So, after a nice rest at the Myrtle Beach Yacht Club, including a luxurious dip in their pool, we moved on to North Carolina.  Our first stop - Wilmington.  Unfortunately, I had to travel for some business, so we did not get to see as much of it as we would have liked.  Brenda stayed with the cats and the boat, and hung with Barry and Jodie for a couple days while I was gone.  I'm not entirely sure what she was doing those 72 hours, but the boat was sure clean and there is even a picture of her eating sushi.  Sushi?  Yes, sushi. 

Wilmington is about 14 miles up the Cape Fear River.  You pop out of the ICW near the town of Southport and then the water gets really wide and quite deep as you head essentially west.  You can really feel what happens when the wind opposes the tidal current.  It was quite bumpy all the way up.  Then, just to make matters more interesting, we had a tanker show up on our tail most of the way up the river.  I got the skipper on the radio and we agreed I would just stick to the green side and allow her to pass. Well, she never did.  She had to slow up once she got to the Wilmington area.  We had made arrangements to stay on the city dock, but since they have no pump out service, we had to go another mile or so up the river to another dock where they did, before tucking in for the next couple days.

This is the ship that "chased" us up the Cape Fear River to Wilmington.

The city dock is in Historic Old Town Wilmington right across from where the USS North Carolina is permanently docked as a memorial to all those soldiers and sailors who died serving their country who came from North Carolina.  The old town area is really nice.  There is an abundance of restaurants and bars and shops.  I did not realize it until later, but the Wilmington area is quite large.  It is also the home of the University of North Carolina, Wilmington.  It makes sense that the historic downtown area is not just for tourists, but also for all the folks who live there to come and party.  It would seem they too, like so many of the towns we have visited, have a celebration a week.  As such, there is a lot to do in the area.

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One of the coolest things I have ever seen is right there in Wilmington - a Serpentarium.  This serpentarium is a herpetologist's dream come true.  The folks who put this place together have managed to accumulate in one place some of the world's most interesting and deadly snakes, as well as a variety of other reptiles.  We had an interesting time touring this place.  This place would be the thing nightmares are made of, but for the great ice cream we found after we left.

The King Cobra - approximately 16 feet long.

Whoa Daddy!

Now if images of this fellow don't keep you up at night.......

Unfortunately, not unlike most city docks, the Wilmington City Dock was located in an area where some might say there is a crime problem.  There is this picnic ground right behind the Visitors Information Center, which is right next door to the Federal Building, where a lot of homeless folks camp out.  The person who came down to the dock to meet us from the City told me there was security at night and that this was not a problematic neighborhood.  Unfortunately, Brenda's bike was stolen.  Moreover, Love Shack, docked right behind us, had an intruder on their boat during the night, as evidenced by the big black footprints they had on their deck and stairs leading to their fly bridge.  Not only that, but the constant commentary from the homeless folks who were insistant we should take them for a ride or take them fishing, and the cat calls and hoots and hollars when Brenda was at the helm as we left.  I've got a rope and a cinder block for that guy.  When we left, I contacted the dockmaster and let him know that, while we enjoyed our stay for the most part, there were some issues they need to deal with if they really have an interest in attracting cruisers to their little corner of the planet.  It should go something like this:  Memo to Police Chief:  clear the homeless out of the Tourist Information Center, and put up a gate with a lock to keep rif-raff off the docks.  Let me be clear.  I don't know who stole Brenda's `bike, or who wandered onto our friends' boat, and certainly, even the homeless need a place to go, but tell me when I get there so I know whether or not this is a "lock it or lose it" place.  By the way, Brenda's bike was locked.  Anyways, the City was nice enough to offer us our money back and of course we accepted.

Later that day, we threw off the lines and headed down to a place called Wrightsville Beach.  It seemed like a good enough place to go for the holiday weekend.  Of course, when you go up a river to get somewhere, you generally have to go back down the river, too.  So we did.  There is a charted cut leading from the Cape Fear River to Snows Cut.  The chart shows plenty of water in this otherwise well marked cut.  So, we're cruising along and the depth looks really good - 16' for most of the way.  Then as we get to the mouth of snow's cut, it goes from 16 down to very little, right in the middle of the marked channel - and we were 2 hours from low tide! So we bumped and got stuck. Oh well, so we placed a kedge and waited for the tide to change.  In the interim, and notwithstanding the placement of a kedge, inconsiderate folks continued to blast by causing a wake that we believe pushed us further into the mud.  So, even though the tide was shifting, we were not floating.  So, eventually, we bit the bullet and called Towboat US and they cam and pulled us off.  No harm, now foul.  I'll tell you what.  Pretty soon we will be done with this Magic Magenta Line thing, and have to rely on charts to tell us where we can and cannot go, and my confidence level in NOAA's charting is not at an all time high. 

We found a really nice anchorage very close to the town where there was a very convenient dinghy dock.  We had a nice time here getting some chores done and also some shopping.  We finally found those cool beach chairs that fold up and have back pack straps.  So we went to the beach, after it stopped raining, of course.  The beach is absolutely beautiful and the water is warm. It rained most of the day, but that didn't keep us from going out for a long hike and doing other things around the boat.

There are a lot of young folks here.  There are a lot of people here, period.  It figures since this is a holiday weekend in a university town. 

These boats are all stopped on an exposed sand bar for a party.

Sitting on the beach in the late afternoon and early evening was really nice.  So many people out having a good time with their friends and families.  I had a realization while sitting there looking at the people and the water.  I have always said that, if I had it to do all over again, I would not change a thing.  I am hereby recanting that.  That is not to say I have any regrets, because I really don't.  However, having seen almost 3000 miles of this country's coast line, I am now firmly convinced that there are places I never imagined that have more to offer than I would have ever known.  People are all the same whereever you go.  And one thing is true regardless of what color you are, what race you are, what God you believe in, what socioeconomic class you live in - the young boy will always manage to find the kelp on the beach and throw it at his older sister.

Cheers, y'all.  Next stop?  I'm not sure yet.  We'll figure something out.