After waiting out a series of storms in Georgetown, SC, we set out for Wilmington, NC. Again, we had hoped to go offshore for an overnight sail but there was a threat of offshore, evening thunderstorms that kept us to the ICW. Since it’s not advisable to motor in the dark in the ICW, we had to split our trip into 2 segments. We went almost 60 nm the 1st day to the Lightkeeper Marina in N. Myrtle Beach. This was one of the more interesting segments of the ICW that we went through. We saw ospreys, alligators, and cool little communities along the waterway. We didn’t really use the facilities here at the marina as we were just there for the night, but we were only a short walk from a couple of restaurants that overlooked the marina.
Leaving with the sun the next day, we went another 62 nm to Wilmington’s Port City Marina. We had hoped to stay in Wrightsville Beach or in Carolina Beach, but they did not have any open marinas (mid to late July). We were lucky and had the current mostly with us until we turned north to go up the Cape Fear River. We fought the last few hours of the trip with 2+ knots of current against us. We arrived at the marina just as fans were showing up to a Phish concert at the Live Oak Pavilion next door. A couple of nights later Darius Rucker played. We were glad that we didn’t get tickets as we could just watch from the boardwalk and they both ended early with the evening thunderstorms. This marina was very nice with large and clean restrooms/showers but they did not have laundry facilities.
The town of Wilmington did not disappoint. From the marina, we were right on the Riverwalk. From there you can see the current home of the Battleship North Carolina across the Cape Fear River. We didn’t get a chance to tour the battleship as we were under a heat advisory while we were in town. The Riverwalk will also take you to the many shops, breweries and restaurants in its touristy downtown area. Since it was hot outside, we toured the Railroad Museum and the Museum of the Bizarre. We only left the Riverwalk area twice. Once to hunt down the New Anthem Beer Project which was a bit of a walk from downtown. The second time was to go and see Oppenheimer on opening weekend, which we highly recommend seeing.
Another cool thing about this stop was to see the house boats at the marina. Most of them looked to be short-term rentals, which would be nice if you wanted to have family visit or if you wanted to come and see a concert at the pavilion On the day we left, they were moving all the house boats to the same pier to allow for more boats into the marina. It was cool to see someone’s tiny house float by, that wasn’t shaped like a boat.
It was also in Wilmington that we also decided that we needed to hurry up and move further north, as the hurricane season was firing up. We made a goal to make it to the Chesapeake Bay and play around there for a bit. Good news is that we still had a ways to go before we got there and would definitely enjoy the journey. Skål!
Up next: We make a mad dash to the Chesapeake and Norfolk, VA!
Shells sink, dreams float. Life’s good on our boat.
– Jimmy Buffett
