Happy Campers

Carolina Beach State Park
34 03.03 N 077 55.14 W

One of the delights about USA East Coast Cruising is that there are so many places to see.   No matter how many years we keep at it, we discover some new ones each year.  This time it is Carolina Beach State Park on the banks of the Cape Fear River.

Many times before, we passed by this spot on the banks of the Cape Fear River.  We always knew that there was a park here with a marina.  However, we were warned of shallow waters at the entrance and we were afraid of going aground.  Then, we heard a notice that the park would be closed for several years for renovation and dredging.  Now for the first time we were able to come in to the park for an overnight.  Bonus: it costs only $30/day to stay here; half the cost of a regular marina.  Bonus: Al the facilities are brand new, hardly used, and very nice.  Bonus: On a weekday we had almost the whole place to ourselves.  See the picture below.

What a delight!  The park is full of nature trails.   It was fun to walk around.   Bonus!  See the picture below.  I found a stand of pine trees with the longest needles we've ever seen.  Libby is a happy camper.

Another bonus.  This place is very close to the winter home of our long time friends Tom and Kathy from Schenectady.  We have many mutual connections, and we tried to meet as we passed by this way, but the last time we succeeded was 5 years ago.   Last night we made up for that.  Kathy & Tom invited us to their new house for dinner.  We had a wonderful time.  Thank you much Tom & Kathy.

Now what?  We are killing time.  A promising weather window appears to be forming starting Saturday afternoon.   We'll spend another night here at the park, then continue on Wednesday.  On the other hand, Tom said that the weather Wednesday is supposed to be terrible with very heavy rain.  If that's the case, we'll just stay here another day and leave Thursday.  We could go out to sea on Saturday from Little River Inlet near Calabash, SC.  With favorable winds we could be in Florida 48 hours after that.  We would like to spend a day or two on Cumberland Island, then move on to Fernandina Beach.