ssloop: Cape Fear-Grace Harbor

Saturday was a great day to explore Bald Head Island, NC. We began the day with a long bike ride stopping at many of the beach areas as we rode around the island. This is a small resort island with many beautiful vacation homes. We could see why many folks love vacationing on this gorgeous island with a golf course, awesome beaches, just a few cute stores and many trails. In the afternoon we took the dinghy exploring through the back waters. We grounded the dinghy many times as usual but this gave us the opportunity to see a bunch of stingrays in the shallows.

Early Sunday morning we departed for Wrightsville Beach, NC. Our journey was 29 miles up the Cape Fear River and the ICW. We dropped the anchor near town and took the dinghy to shore and walked over to the beach. It was a beautiful warm day the the beach was hopping. After checking out the beach we took the dinghy exploring the area. We almost lost the dinghy! The line came loose from the boat just as we were about to board and the current quickly swept it away. The captain dove in and swam to save the day. Steve was very happy the waters here were clean and clear! We really liked the Wrightsville Beach area. At night we met Dan and Jacque from Horizon Chaser (other Loopers anchored nearby) in town for awesome Mexican food.

Monday morning we planned our departure around the Wrightsville bridge opening which only opens only on the hour. We made the 8am opening. We planned to travel as far an anchorage at Camp Lejeune Marine Base where we had heard that quite often you can view the marines training on the water and in aircraft. We stopped, dropped the anchor, and had lunch. But since it was still early in the day and there was no activity we decided to continue on. After traveling a total of 58 miles, we took a slip at Dudley's Marina in Swansboro.

The next stop for most loopers would be Beaufort, NC, however the captain's research uncovered what appeared to be a great anchorage at Cape Lookout. Tuesday morning, after getting local knowledge to safety navigate the nearby small inlet to the ocean, we left the dock and found our way through the inlet. We traveled offshore for 30 miles in rolling seas. We took the swells on our beam which made the ride rocky, but not too uncomfortable. Along the way we saw tons of dolphins and a couple of very large sea turtles. The anchorage did not disappoint. It was absolutely beautiful! We took the dinghy to shore and walked for miles on the beach.

There have been rumblings of a possible pre-season tropical storm. By Tuesday evening this was looking more and more likely to develop and target the Carolinas. We made the decision to head out early Wednesday morning and travel 46 miles to River Dunes Marina at Grace Harbor. This marina is very well protected from wind and waves. Our decision was confirmed as we traveled up the ICW and found ourselves in a convoy of six other Lopper boats headed for the same marina. We are unsure how long we will need to stay here to wait out the storm.

Love it here!