Bonner Bay lies a short hop off the AICW’s passage through Bay River near Statute Mile 162.There are two anchorages just off Bonner Bay, Long Creek and Spring Creek.
As the skipper of “Moon River” discovered (see below), all the anchorages in this area are best entered and exited while referencing a well functioning chart plotter.

Anchorage off Bonner Bay
We did not attempt to sail as we had the Hobucken Canal to transit further on. It was only 1500 when we left the canal, but we had decided to take it easy and look for an anchorage early on. There were a couple of likely wide spots after the canal which looked promising on the chart but not so good when we got to them ~ exposed to the south. Years ago, Don and Gael Steffens, who wrote for “Coastal Cruising Magazine” which I used to edit, had written glowingly about Bonner Bay which they portrayed as a lovely quiet anchorage rarely frequented by cruisers. It was a couple of miles out of our way, but we decided to check it out. Jim was navigating, and he directed us from the canal to flashing red #4 in the middle of the Bay River. Neither of us could see this mark when we thought we should as it was
directly under the lowering Sun. Finally, we both spotted it and used it as our departure point into Bonner Bay which is relatively deep in the middle but shoal for quite a distance from the low lying shores of the bay. We both thought we saw a boat ahead of us enter the bay, but neither of us could see it when we got inside.
There are two narrow but navigable branches well inside the bay, but we chose to anchor in the outer bay and were joined later by a larger than average trawler who anchored just north of us. I think Don and Gael overstated Bonner Bay’s virtues somewhat. The land surrounding it is extremely low with nothing protecting one from a strong south wind coming off the Neuse River but a wide sandy beach. Nevertheless, we felt secure in the outer bay and slept well.
In the morning, we spotted a boat anchored way up the southwest creek in Bonner Bay, and shortly Ocean Gypsy was hailed on VHF 16. It was Moon River a lovely dark blue motorsailer designed by Mark Ellis and built in Canada by Bruckman. Moon River’s skipper was curious about the apparent shortcut we had taken as we approached Hobucken the day before. I like to cut the corners when I can and not necessarily follow doggedly along the purple path shown on the waterway charts. I had to admit to Moon River that my shortcut almost got us into difficulty, as we missed the outer channel marker and narrowly averted going over a 6 foot shoal. We probably would have been okay, but there were a few nervous moments as I watched the depth sounder indications of shoaling water, but soon we were back in the channel with 11 foot soundings.
Our conversation was suddenly interrupted as Moon River ran aground inside Bonner Bay. Now we could see them, and we stopped to make sure they were okay. `It doesn’t pay to try to talk on the radio and navigate at the same time’, said the skipper of Moon River, who quickly recovered deeper water, as we could plainly see. He thanked us for standing by.
Captain Ted Jones

Click Here To Open A Chart View Window, Zoomed To the Location of Bonner Bay

Click Here To View the Cruisers’ Net’s North Carolina Anchorage Directory Listing For Long Creek

Click Here To View the Cruisers’ Net’s North Carolina Anchorage Directory Listing For Spring Creek