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North Carolina ICW

The North Carolina portion of the ICW is the most diverse part of the ICW. You travel through thin canals, wide rivers, large sounds, and coastal islands. When it comes to boats, it seems like there are two North Carolinas. In the sounds of North Carolina there are mostly sailboats cruising around to all the beautiful coves and creeks. In the coastal part of North Carolina below Beaufort, it seems like most vessels are powerboats out fishing.

This leg of our trip consisted of the following segments (hint-click on pictures to get a full-screen version):

Mile 84.2 to Mile 132.3 (48.1 miles): We left the marina at the Alligator River Bridge at 0800 hours and motored to Upper Dowry Creek. A cold front blew in with gusty northerly winds and the local anchorages were exposed to these winds so we stayed at a marina just off the north side of the ICW.  Here we met another couple, both just retired from American Airlines, and enjoying their first trip south on the ICW. Last spring they bought a 37 foot sailboat, took a couple lessons, and decided to travel down to Key West for the winter. Now that is living.

Alligator River Canal

Mile 132.3 to Mile 173.5 (41.2 miles): We left Upper Dowry Creek at 0830 hours and anchored in Broad Creek which is eight miles shy of Oriental, NC. For the first five miles of this segment we motored west to Belhaven, NC. At Belhaven the ICW turns south. With 18 to 20 knot winds coming out of the north we were able to sail downwind the last 36 miles south on the Pungo River, the Pamlico River, the Bay River, and the Neuse River. Most of the way we were sailing at our vessel’s hull speed of 7 knots. We did run aground at one spot as we cut off a corner a little too close. We finished the day by anchoring out in Broad Creek, a beautiful and wide creek just off the Neuse River. There were several boats anchored nearby that we saw at earlier stops.

Broad Creek Anchorage off the Neuse River

Mile 173.5 to Mile 204.0 (30.5 Miles): Departed Beaufort at 1000 hours and motored from Broad Creek to Beaufort, NC. This trip took us across the Neuse River and through Adams Creek and the Adams Creek Canal. We took a slip at the Beaufort docks Marina in downtown Beaufort. We stayed in Beaufort for two nights to visit with some friends who relocated there from Annapolis, MD a few years back. Beaufort is a charming small town with a very well maintained water front. I spent some time doing some boat maintenance (replacing fuel filters and locating and fixing a leak in the water system). Dena spent time re-provisioning.

Anchorage off ICW at Swansboro

Mile 204.0 to Mile 229.0 (25 Miles): Spent a short day motoring from Beaufort to Swansboro, NC. Swansboro is another quaint town on the ICW. We bought 10 gallons of diesel fuel; our first fuel stop in five days. We stopped in Swansboro on our 2003 trip down the ICW and absolutely nothing has changed. This must be how the town remains so quaint.

Mile 229.0 to Miles 264.5 (35.5 Miles): Departed at 0720 hours and motored for six hours and anchored out in a section of the New Topsail inlet which is about a mile off the ICW to the ocean side. We planned to go further this day but the next suitable anchorage was too far to get to in one day.

New Topsail Inlet was another very beautiful anchorage. On the east side is a very thin barrier island with many large beautiful houses. We could hear the ocean waves at this location as the ocean was only about 200 yards away. On the west side are more barrier islands that cannot be built on, providing a natural barrier from all the inland development.

When you reach Beaufort, NC you are entering the coastal portion of the ICW. This creates a couple new challenges. This part of the ICW is very thin and, since you pass many ocean inlets, there are strong currents and much shoaling in the ICW. The ICW cruising guides are pretty good about pointing out the shoaled areas of the ICW, but the information in these guides are always several months old when published, so they can have out of date information. You must pay constant attention to your depth sounder in this area.

Sunset over New Topsail Inlet

The currents are another challenge. On the Chesapeake Bay the tidal change is only about 18 inches and the currents rarely exceed 0.5 knots in the Annapolis part of the Chesapeake Bay. But, starting on the coast of North Carolina, the tidal change and currents become much greater. In the New Topsail Inlet anchorage the tidal change is 4 feet which means the current is very strong in this area. We ran aground going into the New Topsail anchorage and coming out the next morning due to areas that had shoaled in a good distance past the channel markers. If the currents had been at our back, we would not have been able to get ourselves off the shallow areas for several hours until the currents changed directions. Luckily in both cases we were motoring against the current and the strong current helped push us back out of the shallow areas. In some of these anchorages you do a lot of trial and error sounding with your boat to find good water.

Mile 264.5 to Miles 297.1 (32.6 Miles): Departed anchorage at New Topsail Inlet at 0920 hours and motored to the Carolina State Park Marina. We stopped at this marina because we arrived at the opening to the Cape Fear River when the tide was coming in. The Cape Fear River has about a 3 knot current that would have slowed our vessel down to about 3 to 3.5 knots. This made it chancy to make it to Southport, NC before sunset. So we stopped at the Carolina State Park marina. This was a pleasant surprise. It is a brand new marina and charges just $30 per night including electric for any vessel up to 40 feet. We walked through the beautiful park and then to a Walgreen’s and a Food Lion to pick up a few odds and ends.

Typical Waterfront Home at Wrightsville Beach, NC

In this segment we passed through a more populated part of the North Carolina ICW. The most developed area along this stretch is Wrightsville Beach, NC. We anchored in Wrightsville Beach on our last trip in 2003 but we passed it this time as we wanted to get in more miles. But in going by this area I could see that a lot of development has taken place here in the last 10 years. It is obviously a very prosperous area as there were many very large powerboats and even larger homes everywhere along the ICW for several miles before and after Wrightsville Beach.

The stretch of the ICW from Swansboro to Wrightsville Beach has several low-rise bridges where a sailboat must wait for an opening. Some of these bridges are Bascule bridges and some are Swing Bridges. The bridge openings are generally on the hour and the half hour. All the sailboats and taller powerboats back up at these bridges waiting for the scheduled opening. It seems like every morning we are always the first boat waiting at the first bridge, and then after passing through the bridge, all the other boats pass us since we are always the smallest boat. I guess this is our way of “leading from behind.”

Surf City, NC Swing Bridge

Mile 297.1 to Miles 315.0 (17.9 Miles): On this day in the Carolina State Park Marina we experienced an extreme low tide in the morning, so we were delayed leaving the marina due to shallow water in the marina channel. At 1100 hours we finally departed the Carolina State Park Marina and immediately jumped onto the Cape Fear River and motor-sailed past Southport, NC to a very nice marina which is part of the St. James Plantation development. We stopped here in 2003 and there was nothing here but the marina. Now there are over 2,000 homes and 4 golf courses. It is a really nice upscale development. The best part was the slip was only $42 per night including electric.

We have stayed in Marinas more than we had planned. The marina slips have been much cheaper in North Carolina than I had anticipated. Except for downtown Beaufort, the most we have paid has been $1.50 per foot (about $54 per night) and we have often paid less. But we will fill up with fuel and water as from here we plan to anchor out for the next 4 to 5 days until we get to Charleston, SC.

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