Days 338-340

Southport NC - Wilmington NC

• Start 6:50 AM
• End 9:55 AM
• Underway 5:15 Hours
• Distance 23 Miles
• Total Miles on Trip 5450
• Av Speed 7.5 knots
• Weather Cloudy , 64 Degrees, Wind 3 Knots SSW

First a shout out to Robert Creech for the good information on heading up the Cape Fear River. We left Southport at 6:50am, so we could ride the favorable tide heading to Wilmington NC. We knew leaving that early would get us to the marina, well before most marina's let you check in, but we had two issues to contend with. First was making our way up the river before the tide and current flipped, which would make our trip much slower and cost us more fuel. Second and more importantly, we had a rental car scheduled that had to be picked up before 12 noon. My plan was to beg for mercy if our slip was still occupied, and ask the marina if I could tie up anywhere just to get the rental car.

Everything (Well almost everything) worked out perfect. The tide was so strong, it was pushing us up river much faster than we expected, and at one point our estimated time of arrival was 9:15am. We throttled back almost to an idle, so we would arrive at 10:0am. When we arrived at the marina, we tried calling them on the radio with no answer. Mark & Karen (Kay Dee) also could not reach them by phone or radio. Karen told us, that our slip assignments and a map of the marina with slip numbers. The slip we were assigned too was the only slip on that pier with a boat next to it, and the current was going to make backing into the slip very difficult. With Angel still not feeling well, and not having any dock hands to catch our lines, I decided to dock in a much easier slip. It was not a problem, as they marina had many open slips. Cape Fear Marina, is more of a boat yard that a marina, and they do not have any staff working on the weekends, and I wonder if they would have come to help us dock, even if they were there. We decided on this marina, because the Wilmington City Marina never returned our calls. The marina itself was fine, but I would not recommend it for other transient boats. There is not any way to go anywhere either by foot or bike.

Wilmington is about 15 miles off of the Great Loop route. Some but not many loopers, make the side trip, and our primary reason for stopping here was to visit Rebecca & Zach and to see their new house. It was a good thing we did get a rental car, otherwise going anywhere would have required either Uber or a taxi. We were also very lucky that Enterprise is once again picking you up, if you rent a car. Google Maps, shows Enterprise as an eleven minute bike ride from the marina, what it did not tell me, was there is a bridge under construction, and the detour was eight miles to get around that bridge!

The first thing we did when I got the car, was to go to Urgent Care. Angel has been having back pains, for over two weeks, and the last couple of days it has been getting worse. After a two hour wait, she was quickly diagnosed with a Kidney Infect and given antibiotics. Hopefully they work.

On Sunday Angel & I headed off to Raleigh to visit Rebecca & Zach in their new house. After looking at several houses and having lost some of them to other buyers, they put an offer in on this house before they even saw it in person. The house is awesome and we are so proud of what they have accomplished. While we were there we went out to eat then went to a local farmers market for some flower pot, and a couple of plants. Back at the house Rebecca & Zach worked on their garden.

On Monday we went with Mark & Karen to checkout downtown Wilmington and tour the Battleship North Carolina. While we have toured a few ships on our trip, the Battleship North Carolina was in the best shape, and had the most areas open of any one we have been on yet. While we were there every from the deck up was closed. This is temporary while they are refurbishing it. One of the things we have been doing is to take the guided tours. We learn so much more and see much more of the ships than we would on our own. After touring the battleship we went to the Wilmington Train Museum. While it was not the "museum" we have been to, they did have several HO gauge train model railroads setup that you could run. They were set up, that when you stepped on the throttle pedal, it started the train running. The display had several different model railways set up. A lot of it is setup and maintained by volunteers. Volunteering there is a great way to have your model railroad, and be able to play with them without taking up half your house.

Our next planned stop is Mile Hammock Bay, located in Camp Lejeune Marine Corp Base, where we will anchor out for the night.