Bald Head Island Marina (mouth of Cape Fear River)
Here’s a quick, but informative comments concerning Bald Head Island Marina. This facility’s entrance is found hard by the seaward mouth of the Cape Fear River, a short hop downstream of Southport, NC
We always stop here if going by. The marina is easy to enter, excellent staff and Bald Head Island is beautiful.
James Lea
We stayed at the Bald Head Island Marina last December. We hadn’t planned to, but we were chased in by 12ft-18ft seas (bigger as we entered the Cape Fear River due to an opposing ebb) and 35kt+ winds after rounding Cape Fear. After entering the river at dark and just puttering around until daylight, we kissed the ground quickly at the marina. The pros: Nice docks, decent showers/facilities, nice employees, two restaurants attached to the marina, protected basin, beautiful beaches and scenery within walking distance. The cons: Expensive, grocery and all other stores require expensive golf cart rental, everything is pretty expensive since it’s an `exclusive’ island, wireless was NOT free. One other note – before we entered the entrance channel (somewhat narrow, and when there is a flood tide you’ll get SEVERAL knots of current through the channel) we called the marina to check depths (we draw 6′). They told us we would be fine. We got there, made our turn towards our slip and immediately grounded in soft mud with 5′ showing on the sounder. We pushed through the mud and were able to almost make it to a T-head, where we waited for high tide to tie up to it. Apparently, spring tides have a major effect on depth at the marina. The island IS beautiful and it was nice to visit there. By the way, they just built (are building?) the Deep Point Marina just up the river and were very excited about it. It’s supposed to be a lot less expensive with nicer facilities, and one of the former mayors of Southport will be the dockmaster (and he’s a VERY nice guy and proud of his town).
Chris
S/V Pelican
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