Thursday 10-16-08
Still slightly dark as we left the dock at Carolina Beach and headed out of the harbor to Snow’s Cut. The Cut is a short waterway that connects the bay at Carolina Beach to the Cape Fear River and to follow the ICW south, you must go down stream and across the river for about 8-10 miles. Close to the mouth of the river is the town of Southport and there you enter the ICW continuation. The current through Snow’s Cut was with us but when we got to the river, we had an opposing current running at 2 ½ to 3 knots to slow our GS to about 5 kts. The Cape Fear River is big in this area and carries ocean going traffic up to the city of Wilmington, NC. There is a very large and interesting government ship loading facility on the south / west side of the river. It is the U.S. Army Ocean Terminal at Sunny Point and is a very restricted area. It is the largest ammunitions port in the U.S. and very well protected with barriers and guard boats in the area.
The ride down the river took about an hour and a half and finally we reached the buoys that lead us back onto the ICW at Southport. Southport looks like a pleasant small waterfront town with a few marinas – we might make is a stop when we are coming back north. The tide was near high for most of the morning and the extra depth made it nice for crossing the several inlets we had to navigate. The tidal range in this area is about 5’ and many of the smaller inlets are subject to shoaling in spots and those spots change frequently enough that the markers are floating so they can be changed as needed.
Still slightly dark as we left the dock at Carolina Beach and headed out of the harbor to Snow’s Cut. The Cut is a short waterway that connects the bay at Carolina Beach to the Cape Fear River and to follow the ICW south, you must go down stream and across the river for about 8-10 miles. Close to the mouth of the river is the town of Southport and there you enter the ICW continuation. The current through Snow’s Cut was with us but when we got to the river, we had an opposing current running at 2 ½ to 3 knots to slow our GS to about 5 kts. The Cape Fear River is big in this area and carries ocean going traffic up to the city of Wilmington, NC. There is a very large and interesting government ship loading facility on the south / west side of the river. It is the U.S. Army Ocean Terminal at Sunny Point and is a very restricted area. It is the largest ammunitions port in the U.S. and very well protected with barriers and guard boats in the area.
The ride down the river took about an hour and a half and finally we reached the buoys that lead us back onto the ICW at Southport. Southport looks like a pleasant small waterfront town with a few marinas – we might make is a stop when we are coming back north. The tide was near high for most of the morning and the extra depth made it nice for crossing the several inlets we had to navigate. The tidal range in this area is about 5’ and many of the smaller inlets are subject to shoaling in spots and those spots change frequently enough that the markers are floating so they can be changed as needed.
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