Since the northerly winds were still blowing, we had to find an anchorage to stop at before reaching the Cape Fear River.
We noted an anchorage on our charts just before Southport in a large canal that had been dug when laying a pipeline. The canal turned out to be perfect. We spent a quiet night here with good protection from the northerly winds which were forecasted to die overnight.
Tuesday morning and we are motoring up the Cape Fear River with light winds and basically a slack current. This is one of the smoother trips we have made in the Cape Fear River which can be quite boisterous at times.
An interesting sight. The USCG were performing maintenance one of the Cape Fear River buoys. We gave them a nice slow pass so as to not rock the buoy with our wake.
After a smooth transit up the river we're approaching Wilmington. There are 3 different town docks here that can host several boats. Normally there is no overnight docking, but it was not very busy in early April. Turned out there were only two sailboats that were visiting plus two other boats that appeared to have been moored for several days or more.
Tied up at the town dock and we're off to tour around town.
There is a 1.7 mile walk along the riverfront that lets you take in the sights while getting some exercise. Up the river from us are two marinas, one of which had several houseboats moored that you can buy. It was strange to see the boats moored between the houses.
We would be interested in living in one of these houseboats except for the fact the Cape Fear River is notorious for serious flooding during hurricanes and serious Spring storms. The downside of North Carolina living is that it is directly on the storm track for many strong storms coming across America.
Our choice for dinner. The only downside to this choice was we each got a slice of pizza meaning no leftovers for tomorrow. But Sue only ate half hers so that was my lunch the next day.
We also had our traditional dark porter beer for Sue and IPA for Mark. The beer was better than the pizza.
Sunset next to the WWII battleship North Carolina after a day of walking about town and sight seeing. There is much to do in Wilmington. I counted about 8 breweries and lots of restaurants and bars as well as many museums.
Tomorrow we will be off continuing our way north towards Beaufort and our way home.
