Anchoring at the southern foot of White Oak River, abeam of the Swansboro downtown waterfront, has long been a popular thing to do. The presence of a town dinghy dock makes this an even more attractive proposition.
HOWEVER Captain Nichole is right on target in her posting below when she speaks of “strong” tidal currents which scour this anchorage. We, too, have had trouble when the current shifts. Clearly, extra care is called for when anchoring on these waters.

We anchored here last night and had a really hard time. We had dinner on a fellow cruisers boat and came back out to find our boat had dragged over 100 feet. We have a fishermen’s anchor that is rated for 60 foot boat (we have a 28 foot sailboat) and it was good and set when we left. When the current shifted the chain, the boat sailed around the anchor, fouled it and caused us to drift. (which has never happened to us before.) We grounded briefly which saved our boat from hitting any other boats but it was a tricky proposition to move the boat back to a good spot in that current, we set out a second anchor and spent most of the night checking it on the half hour to make sure we were staying in one spot. The current is swift and some of the holding ground is not great especially when the current switches, when we pulled up anchor today to go to Dudley’s Marina to sit out a blow(75 cents a foot by the way, worth it to not have to deal with an anchoring nightmare) our anchor had fouled again. Use heavy anchors if you are going to anchor here and try to be near your boat when the tide switches because it is a very challenging location.
Nicole

Click Here For The Cruisers’ Net’s North Carolina Anchorage Directory Listing For The Swansboro/White Oak River Anchorage