18 October 2026 - Sunday
Depart: Harbour Point Yacht Club, Carolina Beach, NC 8:00 a.m.
Arrive: Morning Star Marina, Southport, NC 9:45 a.m.
Distance: 12.4 nm
Conditions: Cloudy, Windy, and Chilly
On our return trip home in the spring, Clark says the boat needs some work done that requires a haul out with a knowledgeable boat yard and the right equipment for the job(s) we need to have done. After talking on the phone to the folks at Zimmerman Boat Yard, he scheduled a quick visit with them on the way south to discuss the work needed. Our planned stay tonight in Southport sets us up to stop in to see them early Monday, i.e. tomorrow, morning.
A weather system came in yesterday and was still making its presence known this morning. Rain was minimal but the wind gusts were frequent. Our trip to Southport today required traveling down the Cape Fear River. The inclement weather would indicate prudence in staying put until things settled down a bit. The tide said otherwise. Clark said wind or no wind we need to leave early morning.
People have written books about ship wrecks at Cape Fear. With my interest in historical, nautical novels, I have read a number of those stories. To say I had concerns regarding leaving with a nor'easter on our heels would be an understatement. Clark assured me that with the wind coming from the north, we would be fine.
As it turned out, he, of course, was right, and we had a short ride today down Snow's Cut and the Cape Fear River to Southport, NC. We had a push from tidal waters down Snow's Cut. Then, with wind and current both pushing us down the Cape Fear River, we had a fast ride to our destination. I peeked at our speed on the river and was surprised to see that it showed 8.5 knots. Hmmm. Then I looked at the RPM and saw that we were only going about 1300 RPM as opposed to our normal 1520. Saving fuel and going the same speed as usual - not a bad idea! He also was waiting for the marina office to open at 9 am to get a reservation.
We stayed at the Morningstar Marina in Southport. Years ago we stayed here when it was the Southport Marina. Clark chose this place for the night because he wanted to plug in to electric for power and to meet a friend who docked there. With cloudy days the past two days, the solar panels were not supplying what we needed, and with a short ride to Southport, the engines could not do the job either. Mostly, given the temps in the 40s at night, he wanted heat! As it turned out, it warmed up during the day, and we didn't end up using it.
I took a picture of the area just after we arrived at the marina with the sun glistening off the water.
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| Looking into the sun at Southport, NC |
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| Welcome to Morningstar Marina |
Rarely do I call out a dockhand for their competence in helping us tie up to a dock. Some are good; some are not. Mason, however, at Morningstar Marina was exceptionally good at bringing us in. We had conditions pushing us off the dock, so we had to work at getting a line to him. Before that, however, he waited patiently while I got my lines and fenders in place. I heard him tell Clark, "Take your time!"
We have bow and stern thrusters on the boat. Even so, given the wind velocities pushing us away, it was a challenge to get the boat to the dock. Clark got us close enough that I could throw a line to Mason. I pointed to a cleat and asked him to tie the line off so Clark could use it to maneuver. No sooner did he have it tied than Clark said, "Not that one. The next one over." No problem for Mason, he just moved it down the dock one cleat.
Once the line was cleated off to Clark's satisfaction, he put the boat in forward and used the cleated off line to pull us right in to the dock where Mason was ready and waiting to tie off our bow line. His patience and skill, i.e. knowing how to tie a cleat hitch, made docking even in adverse conditions appear easy. He got a nice tip - not just for his capability but also for his friendly personality.
When we came into Carolina Beach the other day looking for the pump-out station and planning to stay the night, we followed a boat S/V Hirondelle up to the point where he turned off for Snow's Cut and we continued straight for Carolina Beach. Once we were docked, I noticed that that boat was tied up to the dock directly in front of us.
I don't usually walk up to strangers on boats and start talking to them - that's Clark forte. However, I remembered this boat and the accent that the boat owner had and decided that I had to say hello. He had a British accent, but I could not distinguish it over the radio. Australia? New Zealand? Turns out, he is from Birmingham, England. Given both my parents were born in England, we immediately had something in common to discuss besides boating.
Normally, Clark is the one that gets into conversations, and I am the one that has to come and drag him away. Today, that shoe was on the other foot. He found me and pulled me away from our chat. Another reason for stopping in Southport at this marina was that we have friends who keep their boat here. They walked over to greet us after Mason had our lines secured, etc. We said we would walk over to their boat to chat once settled. Clark pulled me away from the sailboat to go see our friends. Legit reason!
We found our friend's boat and chatted with them for a while. They had things to do, and I had a pile of smelly laundry from our exciting time fixing the holding tank problem. Whether from perspiration due to the heat or due to splashes of disgusting stuff splashing out of the tank, the laundry needed to be addressed (and who knows when we will see another washing machine)! Given we all had plans, we agreed to come together again for dinner at 5:00.
Clark and I stopped to check out the laundry room before returning to the boat. I wanted to see the sizes of the machines, find out how many $$ would be required, and what form of payment was needed. Turns out I would be able to do one load to get all of my laundry done, and it would cost me $4 in quarters. Not bad! While I got the laundry done, Clark took a much-needed nap.
At 5:00 we met up with Dan and Cynthia from the boat Dan Cyn, and they drove us to Oliver's Restaurant for dinner. There were two choices for a reservation with Cynthia called - either 5:15 or 7:30. None of us wanted a late dinner, so 5:15 it was. It is a small, popular restaurant.
I noticed that the restaurant liked to decorate their walls with oars like the ones shown below.
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| Wall decorations at the restaurant |
Clark and I have known Dan and Cynthia for a number of years having met initially at Faro Blanco. We reconnected last season at Marlin Bay where Clark helped Dan with battery problems on his boat. Even though we have know each other for years, at dinner tonight, we got a chance to learn more about each other's past lives, i.e. life before boating in retirement. Past work experiences, family, etc. We had a lovely evening with good conversation and a lot of food.
Before arriving at the restaurant, Dan had driven us around town a bit to show us the neighborhood. Some of the houses here have plaques showing their date of origin in the 1800s. There is a lot of history here. As part of the "tour", Dan drove past his own house to show us where they live.
After dinner, they brought us back to the marina where we said our farewells until March when they expect to arrive at Marlin Bay for a period of time. When we got back to the boat, Clark and I watched television for a while. Although Clark napped earlier in the day, I did not. After the big dinner at the restaurant, I went to bed earlier than usual.
We have had a busy few days and an early night sounded real good!
19 October 2026 - Monday
Depart: Morningstar Marina, Southport, NC 8:20 a.m.
Stopover: Zimmerman Boat Yard, NC 10:00 - 11:00
Arrive: Enterprise Oxbow, near Bucksport, SC 5:00
Distance: ~ 56 nm
Conditions: Sunny with Chilly wind
Clark was anxious to get to the boatyard to talk about the propellor shaft issue with the folks at Zimmerman's. I asked if we were having breakfast before leaving or "on the road", and he said he wanted to get underway. While he took care of some last-minute business, I worked on getting the lines setup for easy departure. No dockhands were within sight as we pulled away from the dock. We are frequently on our own and used to setting the lines for quick and easy release when Clark says, "Go time".
When I talked to the "Brit" on S/V Hirondelle yesterday, he was sitting at the dock waiting until the tide came up because he was concerned about depths at Lockwood's Folly. We passed through there today before getting to Zimmerman's. Clark had me watching the depths as we made our way.
Some pictures taken as we made our way to and through Lockwood's Folly.
Shortly thereafter we arrived at Zimmerman's. We could see no one as we came in. They had told Clark ahead of time which slip and that he should come in bow first. As I got my lines in place, someone saw us (or heard the bow thruster) and literally came running to help with lines. The slip was too short for our boat, so much of us hung out beyond the floating dock. Since we get off in the stern usually that made getting off the boat challenging.
After tying us to the dock, they brought out a step ladder to climb onboard.
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| Tied up next to the travel lift slip |
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| Worker that ran out to help us tie up |
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| Ladder to help the guys come onboard |
They completed their survey of the work to be done by 11:00, and we were on our way at 11:05! Our plans for today included waving goodbye to North Carolina and saying hello to South Carolina. Clark was a little unsure of whether or not we had enough time to get to his preferred anchorage, so we did some calculations and came up with an ETA of around 5:15. Perfect!
I took lots of pictures today. They somewhat fell into categories - scenery, boats, bridges, and storm damage.
Given the good condition of the canvas on the sailboat shown below, it would appear that this accident occurred recently. Very sad to see!
We saw a few docks today that were destroyed by some storm or another. The one below looked pretty awful.
As we passed by Shallotte Inlet, Clark was surprised to see a boat heading out towards the ocean. This inlet is not recommended due to its shallow depths. Based on the way he wove his way across the inlet, he must have local knowledge. Clark was craning his neck looking backwards to see where the boater went on his way through there.
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| Beach at Shallotte Inlet - one person on the beach with a US flag proudly waving to the right |
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| Silhouette of a lone person on the beach at Shallotte Inlet |
As we approached the NC / SC border, we passed what Clark called Trailerville. Miles of motor homes along the side of the waterway. The volume of "homes" is stunning!
At one point I asked Clark if we were in South Carolina yet, and he said, "No, not until we see the Casino boats!" Right! These boats take folks who want to gamble offshore where it is legal to loose your money. They did not get too creative with the boat names.
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| Big M Casino |
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| The Big M Casino |
As we passed through Little River, SC, I was taken by the number of different commercial boats - basically, something for everyone.
Fast tour boats ...
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| Sea Screamer and Sea Racer |
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| Sea Thunder - fast tour boat |
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| Atlantic Star - passenger / fishing vessel |
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| Pride of the Carolinas Fishing Vessel |
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| Big Tiki boat for large parties |
In addition to lots of "party" boats, we passed more than a few eateries like Crab Catchers and Captain Archie's shown below.
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| Crab Catchers with outdoor diners (on a windy day) |
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| Captain Archie's restaurant |
As we entered North Myrtle Beach and passed the "Lightkeeper's Yacht Club", a huge power Cat came up behind us requesting to pass. This boat was ~ 60 feet long and 40 feet wide. I could only wonder where do they find places to dock!?
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| Lighthouse at entrance to Lightkeeper's Yacht Club |
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| Mindsweeper 60' Power Cat |
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| Looking back at the lighthouse |
We had a few bridges to go through today.
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| Little River Swing Bridge fat boat, narrow opening |
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| Our turn |
The bridge clearance was shown as 29'. We need no more than 22'. Clark called the tender to say we did not need an opening. I thought they might hold it open since we were right there, but they immediately started the process to close the bridge. As we passed under the bridge, I could see a set of stairs hanging off the side coming straight towards us. I hoped that 29' took the stairs into consideration.
We passed under the stairs (shown on the left side of the picture below) and the bridge with no issues.
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| Barefoot Landing Bridge Looking back as it's closing |
Here we found the Barefoot Queen river boat. Something for everyone!
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| Barefoot Queen |
Passing through Myrtle Beach, I felt obligated to include golf course pictures.
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| Golf carts in the distance |
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| 2 Women golfers on the course |
The volume of houses / condos through the Myrtle Beach area is astounding. Building after building with hardly any space in between.
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| Tall and skinny |
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| Most have a small boat slip |
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| As far as the eye can see |
We could see smoke up ahead and wondered what was on fire. As we got closer, we saw a lot of activity going on clearing a section of land.
First we noticed that the soil at the side of the waterway had been dug up.
To add to my collection of boat pictures, the next points of interest we passed were a pirate ship and another Tiki boat!
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| Treasure Hunter |
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| Tiki Tours |
Clark had thought we were done with bridge openings, but then we came up on the Socaste Bridge. I learned today that it is pronounced like sock-a-stee. Once again it looked like Mindsweeper would barely fit through.
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| Mindsweeper at the Socaste Bridge |
The bridge tender was standing up high above us as we passed through the opening. She gave us a friendly wave and we heard, "have a nice day" from her radio.
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| Bridge tender high up on the swing bridge |
After miles and miles of houses practically on top of each other, it was refreshing to enter the Waccamaw River and see only trees to either side of us.
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| Mindsweeper still ahead of us |
The trees were not very colorful. Many of the leaves had been stripped off and the colors were not vibrant.
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| Some trees had Spanish Moss |
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| Most colorful tree on the river |
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| Mindsweeper continued onward |
As we found our place to drop our anchor, I was happy to see two turtles sunning themselves in the anchorage.
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| 2 turtles sunning themselves in the anchorage |
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| Our neighbors! |
As the sun started to go down, the view got better and better. I enjoyed the sunset reflections on the water.
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| Lit house in distance across from anchorage |
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| Lights on our neighbor's boat |
At 6:30 I asked Clark if he had the anchor light on. He said it was a bit early yet. Sunset was at 6:35! Around 8:30 he suddenly remembered that he never turned on the anchor light! He ran and turned it on. Shortly after we heard a bow thruster going and going, so we poked our heads out the door to take a look. A gigantic 70-something foot boat was trying to come into the anchorage.
The captain of the boat saw us looking at him and started asking us questions about how we were anchored, what swing room we had / needed, how much line we had out, ... Yikes! Sorry "there's no room at the inn here"! Clark convinced him to take a look at the other end of the ox bow, or better yet, travel a couple of miles down the way to the Bucksport Marina. They let folks come in after dark and tie up even after hours. I was relieved that they left and even more relieved that Clark had eventually remembered that anchor light. It could have gotten quite ugly!
I asked Clark several times where we might end up tomorrow and never got an answer. And now, it's late, and I'm off to bed! I guess tomorrow's destination will be a surprise! Perhaps for both of us!
No heat tonight! 47 degrees overnight tonight! Time to bundle up and cuddle up.
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