Sunday, November 29, 2009 Wrightsville Beach to Southport

From: Wrightsville Beach, NC N34*12.437 W77*47.898
To Southport, NC N33*55.031, W78* 01.672
26.2 nm “The hard way…” 8:00am to 3:30pm travel time.

    We made it out of Wrightsville Beach without running aground around 8:30am and headed to Southport. The entrance coming in takes you very close to the swampy area that looks shallow when in fact that’s the deepest part of the channel. You’d think it would be deeper near the marina with the large yachts but that’s not the case.  Along the route we saw many white ibis. They nest along this area of Cape Fear. Most of my pictures of them look quite washed out because they're so white! I guess they like the crabs and crayfish which are abundant in the area's swamps. The fishing must be good too because we saw an abundance of fishermen along the banks and crabbers/clammers.

    Passing by Money Point, we saw many large, old mansions and newer ones mixed in next to the older ones. The older homes look like they’ve stood the test of time quite well and continue to shine. The newer ones appear to be built on property once owned by the older plantations. It must be nice to think of having a “generational home” where several generations of the same family have occupied the same property probably at the same time. It must be comforting to know that you can come and go and wander the four corners of the earth and still be able to return to the bosom of family and home. Some of these old plantation homes have quite a history and have sheltered many families and people. The newer ones that stand as sentinels on the properties of the old, shelter probably one couple and a couple of kids. Some have for sale signs posted on the canal water testifying to anchorless society we have concerning family and home. It’s come to the point now in our society that some people only communication via texting and computers even while dwelling in the same house. They text each other to come to dinner instead of calling to each other in the next room. It’s sad to think that we’ve lost touch with living together. We’ve gone from generations occupying the same home, to the nuclear family, to…. isolation within our own rooms. Somewhere between the World Wars and today we’ve lost the comfort and pain of bonding together and have become lonely wayfarers in our own houses.

     At 11:00am we proceeded to run aground at the Carolina Inlet but thankfully on a rising tide. So we sat and waited for the tide to lift us so we could go back into deeper water. This area is notorious for shoaling and we managed snag the shoals quite well. It gave me some time to download my pictures from last night though. 12:30pm we were ungrounded and on our way again watching the fishermen along the banks of Snow’s Cut.

     Along the Cape Fear River we started getting into deeper water. A lot of freighters use the Cape Fear Channel to come in and out at this inlet. One freighter that was heading south (and out) was closing in on us at a rapid pace so we needed to get out of the channel. We decided to snug over to the right and it looked like the entrance to another freight loading area. A police boat came up pretty fast towards the entrance, with blue lights flashing, and told us we could not come near that area and to “stay to port” “You cannot come into this channel, it’s a restricted area.” “If you come closer, you will be boarded”. “We have a ship in the process of boarding and getting ready to come out.” Oh oh… I had no idea what that meant and actually could have cared less if they did board us. We needed to get out of the freighters way… We managed to straddle the edge of the entrance and stay out of the shipping lane though. I asked if the freighter bearing down on us was turning into their facility and got a “no ma’am, he’s going south too”. “Okay, Roger that, thank you and have a great day”.

As the freighter from Hanjin-Wilmington continued on past us I noticed that one of the two freighters in the private loading area had started up their engines and was getting a tow out with the police as a vanguard escort to the channel. At that point two coastguard inflatable craft armed with 50 caliber machine guns took over the escort to the unknown freighter with a Maersk Texas marking on the stern. It was interesting to watch them buzzing around the freighter and approaching various boats that were near the freighter. I watched this for a while until it occurred to me that one of the zodiacs was staring at us. I thought “oh oh” but figured we hadn’t done anything wrong and the freighter was coming closer to us – we weren’t approaching it but trying to stay out of it’s way. I finally waved at them and smiled and that’s when they turned away and buzzed off to look at another boat. It was interesting to watch them circling the freighter and stand guard around it, but we had no idea WHY the freighter needed such protection. We speculated that the area that we couldn’t go into must have something to do with the military and weapons of some sort since we weren’t at Fort Knox (so it wasn’t gold). It was scary being stared at though. Later I noticed there was someone on deck watching us through binoculars (when I was looking at my pictures). 

We got into the Southport Marina around 3:30pm and tied up to the fuel dock in 10 ft of water. They really should fix the data in the books that say 5.5 ft depths. They’re probably losing a lot of business by people seeing that and going on to the next marina up the path. After fueling up and registering we bought a 6 pack of Yuenglings (beer) and at 3:55pm it was down the hatch! It was very cold and very good and after sweating and itching, I had the giggles. I should know better – I just can’t drink. After waiting for a safe amount of time I was able to head down the docks to the shower at 5pm and then we were told that PJs across the street had great food and opened for dinner at 5pm. Unfortunately when we got there at 6pm they weren’t open (closed on Sundays) so we decided to walk down the water front to a place that looked open when we passed by it called “Fishy Fishy”. We got away from the water and had to ask directions and finally made it there. They have a shrimp and grits dish that is supposed to be renowned, but I couldn’t bring myself to try it – it didn’t look or sound to appetizing. I ended up getting ribs (I know, I know at a fish place?) and Wayne got shrimp. Neither were anything to write home about, but I didn’t have to cook so hey…
     Oh hey! We found out that the docking area WAS a munitions area. They load the munitions there and ship them out to various places.