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Assuming cartel bosses aren’t stupid, their next step might be to trade speed for something slower but more deceptive.
“Some of you may die, but that is a sacrifice I am willing to make,” the villainous Lord Farquaad says in the 2001 animated film “Shrek.”
Memo to sailors in the lower Caribbean: Dude might as well be talking to you.
U.S. Southern Command is bombing drug boats because Washington hasn’t accrued sufficient gumption to go in and bomb Nicolas Maduro himself, pretender to the throne of Venezuela. Which is the transparently obvious goal of the entire enterprise.
The voluntary reporting deal struck between Dietmar Petutschnig of Ocean Posse and America’s military leadership is designed to help U.S. forces distinguish friend from foe. It is also an acknowledgement by both parties that the risk of Caribbean cruisers being killed in a drone strike is not zero.
“Recreational sailors could become collateral damage in an environment where accurate vessel identification is increasingly difficult,” said Petutschnig, founder of the Ocean Posse, an association of more than 1,500 long-distance cruisers.
“Warships and patrol aircraft operating at high speed often have only minutes to decide if an unknown radar contact is innocent or hostile.”
The worst example of the U.S. Navy’s ability to screw up happened back in 1988, when the USS Vincennes shot down an Iranian airliner, killing all 290 people aboard. Iran Air Flight 655 was traveling down an established air corridor, it’s Airbus transponder pinging away, when the two missiles struck.
The U.S. paid off the familes—$62 million—but never apologized. In a service that ends the career of any captain whose ship goes aground or gets a scrape on its topsides, the fate of the Vincennes skipper was downright baffling. He was awarded a medal for the period involved—the Legion of Merit.
As suggested, SOUTHCOM is conducting two operations simultaneously. It is hitting boats operated by drug cartels, the overt enemy, while maintaining the fiction that the Maduro government is also a major player in the trade.
Like the Navy’s recent sparring partner on the Red Sea—the Houthis—the various South American cartels are expert at asymetrical and covert warfare. While opponents of the Trump administration bemoan the extra-judicial killings of the drug boat crews, most of whom are poor fishermen, the cartels are likely more concerned about the loss of product.
Put yourself in the position of a drug lord for a moment. Fast open boats, powered by multiple outboard motors, are being picked off like duckies at a carnival shooting gallery. Sailboats and motoryachts are not so easily disguishable as smuggling craft. You can bet the cocaine trade has already begun the transition from speed to deception with the knowledge that many monohulls and most catamarans look alike from the air.
There is also the potential for tactical misdirection, as Petutschnig suggested in his announcement earlier this week when he mentioned “the potential for malicious false reports labeling legitimate cruising yachts as suspected drug-running vessels.”
Then, there was the rather ominous suggestion that everyone get the equivalent of an ID card with photos of their boats “from an elevated angle.” To wit, cruisers should:
Update their vessel’s public wiki page on MarineTraffic.com (free account required) with current photos—ideally taken from an elevated angle and showing people on deck for scale—and complete vessel details. SOUTHCOM has been briefed that this crowdsourced platform is a recognized open-source reference for legitimate cruising boats.
Presumably, this will allow the drone operator to use AI to determine whether to pull the trigger with you in the crosshairs. (And hope that SOUTHCOM doesn’t have intelligence that a cartel happens to be using a Beneteau 44 just like yours.)
Which begs the question: Instead of filing float plans, posting aerial photos of your boats and all that other stuff, why don’t you just get off the battlefield?
That would be the conservative play, like leaving the hurricane belt during hurricane season. As I said to a reader with whom I was discussing the topic: “If I find myself in a dangerous neighborhood, and I’m in a car, I’m going to drive until I’m somewhere else.”
That’s the beauty of having a boat. A boat can go. But I have a feeling most cruisers in the lower Caribbean won’t. Petutschnig was asked why not.
“Warm waters in winter have a special attraction,” Petutschnig said. “I wish I had a crystal ball—but with so many military assets in the region the possibility of ‘accidents’ increases drastically. The tempo points to activity over the next 30 days. And to top it off, there are thrill seekers who want to be close to conflict and witness the front lines.”
So, maybe it’s best if we just get it over with—invade Venezuela. You know we want to.
That way, cruisers can get back to their pot-luck suppers and piña coladas. The Navy can get back to figuring out how to stop China from invading Taiwan. Drug runners can get back to their old cat-and-mouse games, and the Venezuelan people can learn new and novel ways to suffer.
LOOSE CANNON covers hard news, technical issues and nautical history. Every so often he tries to be funny. Subscribe for free to support the work. If you’ve been reading for a while—and you like it—consider upgrading to paid.
The hurricane season for this year ends on Sunday, and named storms this season have been below average.
Weather Alert – November 28, 2025
Tropics Done
The hurricane season for this year ends on Sunday, but it’s quiet across the Atlantic tropics, and there is no reasonable chance for any more storms to form over the next few weeks. So, I’m going to go ahead and call it: we did it … we survived another hurricane season!
The season was below average in terms of the number of named storms (13, the average in recent decades is 14.1) and hurricanes (five, the average is 7.1), but above average in terms of major hurricanes (four, the average is 3.2) and seasonal ACE (accumulated cyclone energy, a measure of how much energy a season’s storms expend, there was a total of 132.6 units of ACE from this year’s storms and the average is 121.5).
The best part of this year’s hurricane season is that we only had one landfalling storm in the United States. It was Tropical Storm Chantal, which made landfall here in South Carolina near Litchfield Beach on July 6. Impacts here in South Carolina were low-end, as the winds were not particularly strong and the storm’s rain was mostly welcome. However, Chantal’s rains caused severe flooding in parts of North Carolina and Virginia.
A map from the National Hurricane Center showing the tracks of 2025’s Atlantic storms.
It will likely be months before we face another tropical threat, but it’s important to remain prepared. If it’s not something coming out of the tropics, it can be tornadoes, winter storms, and even earthquakes. So, check out those SCEMD webpages to be well-informed about disaster preparedness.
A cold front that moved through on Wednesday night put an end to our warm weather, and it will be a while before any of us in the Palmetto State see it well into the 70s again. We started this morning with the coldest readings of the season so far, or nearly so, and we’re going to see temperatures remain mostly below average over the next week.
No, it won’t be cold enough for snow. Not for the next week, anyway. We might see some opportunities for a winter storm later in December, but not right off the bat.
A storm will pass by to our north over the weekend and pull a cold front into South Carolina on Sunday. Ahead of it, we remain cold but tranquil through today and Saturday with highs in the 40s north and 50s south. In between, much of the state will see subfreezing temperatures again tonight, with 20s widespread.
Warmth surges into the Coastal Plain ahead of the next front, sending highs along and south of I-20 into the 60s (maybe 70° in the warmest spots), while the chilly air remains stuck over I-85 and north due to cold air damming; it will hold in the 40s and lower 50s there. Unfortunately, the front won’t have much moisture to work with, and we’ll only see isolated showers as it moves through. However, there could be a steadier drizzly or misty nuisance in the areas stuck in the cold air damming regime.
The front will become stationary to our south, and another storm will ride along it through the Southeast on Monday night into Tuesday. The storm track will be along the Gulf Coast and then along the Carolina coast (you know, the sort that causes winter storms ’round these here parts, but it won’t be cold enough to cause any snow or ice here). It will be a close call for a little freezing rain northwest of I-85, where it will likely be in the middle to upper 30s when the rain moves in, so we’ll have to watch for changes in the coldest spots in our northwest. However, it’s likely to be a rain-only event for all of South Carolina. It will be a cold rain for most with highs only in the 40s north of I-20, with 60s confined to the coast.
The good news is that we are likely to see widespread soaking rain of 1-2 inches across the state. There may even be rumbles of thunder along the Coastal Plain. Much of the state remains in a drought, which worsened compared to last week because it was mostly dry.
The latest U. S. Drought Monitor for South Carolina issued on Wednesday shows about a fourth of the state in a drought.
Wednesday through Friday next week looks dry and chilly. Highs will be mainly in the 50s on Wednesday, then it is likely to warm up somewhat to near-average 50s and low 60s for the end of the week. Another good chance of rain could arrive as early as next Friday night; next Saturday is likely to be wet, followed by a drier, colder Sunday.
Frank Strait Severe Weather Liaison S.C. State Climate Office
South Carolina Department of Natural Resources 260 D. Epting Lane West Columbia, SC, 29172
Elizabeth City sits at the southern terminus of the Dismal Swamp Canal and has the well-earned reputation of being a transient-friendly town with free dockage for 72 hours.
Cruisers Net publishes Loose Cannon articles with Captain Swanson’s permission in hopes that mariners with saltwater in their veins will subscribe. $7 per month or $56 for the year; you may cancel at any time.
These are the areas in which the U.S. military is targeting vessels it says are smuggling drugs.
The Ocean Posse, a community of more than 1,500 long-distance cruising sailors, today announced a new cooperative voluntary reporting arrangement with U.S. Southern Command (SOUTHCOM) designed to improve safety and reduce the risk of misidentification for private recreational vessels transiting high-risk areas of the Eastern Pacific and Caribbean.
The agreement comes amid growing mariner concerns over sharply degraded Search and Rescue (SAR) capabilities in Venezuelan waters, the potential for malicious false reports labeling legitimate cruising yachts as suspected drug-running vessels, and warnings from multiple governments that parts of the region are becoming operationally “hot” due to heightened counter-narcotics and security operations.
“Recreational sailors could become collateral damage in an environment where accurate vessel identification is increasingly difficult,” said Dietmar Petutschnig, founder of the Ocean Posse.
“Warships and patrol aircraft operating at high speed often have only minutes to decide if an unknown radar contact is innocent or hostile. A properly filed float plan and up-to-date open-source vessel profile could be the difference between a simple fly-by and a dangerous interdiction.”
Under the new voluntary regime, captains making offshore passages (beyond 12 nautical miles) in the Eastern Pacific south or east of Huatulco, Mexico, and north of Ecuador, as well as in the Caribbean south of the Cayman Islands, Jamaica, Puerto Rico, USVI, and BVI and north of South America, are strongly recommended to enact this protocol:
Pre-Departure Actions
Update their vessel’s public wiki page on MarineTraffic.com (free account required) with current photos—ideally taken from an elevated angle and showing people on deck for scale—and complete vessel details. SOUTHCOM has been briefed that this crowdsourced platform is a recognized open-source reference for legitimate cruising boats.
Upon safe arrival or completion of the passage, close the loop by sending a short email to the same address with subject line “Float Plan Complete – (Vessel Name).”
The U.S. Navy build up is part of a pressure campaign against Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro.
Underway Best Practices
Maintain 24/7 bridge watch and VHF Channel 16 guard
Transmit on AIS whenever possible (noting that warships typically do not)
Fly national ensign clearly
Proactively hail any sighted warship on VHF 16 with position, vessel name, persons aboard, and innocent-passage routing
Immediately comply with any instructions if hailed
Observe minimum standoff from U.S. Navy and Coast Guard vessels
Dedicated 24/7 rescue coordination hotlines for family and shore-side contacts are:
Caribbean: JRSC San Juan – (833) 453-1267 or +1 (787) 729-6770 | ssjcc@uscg.mil
“This is not mandatory, but it is the best layer of protection available right now,” Petutschnig said. “A float plan filed directly with SOUTHCOM’s humanitarian notification desk gives US forces immediate access to proof that your vessel is a legitimate cruising yacht with known passengers and itinerary—information that can prevent escalation during an encounter.”
The arrangement was developed in direct consultation with SOUTHCOM staff and reflects the command’s interest in reducing risk to innocent mariners while maintaining operational security. The PDF below contains full instructions for captains.
The Ocean Posse is one of the world’s largest community of private vessels undertaking long-distance cruising, providing weather routing, port clearances, safety seminars, marina discounts and real-time marine intelligence to its members.
LOOSE CANNON covers hard news, technical issues and nautical history. Sometimes he tries to be funny. Subscribe for free to support the work. If you’ve been reading for a while—and you like it—consider upgrading to paid.
Harborwalk Marina, A CRUISERS NET SPONSORS, is only a boardwalk stroll away from Georgetown’s Historic District for history, entertainment, great food, and shopping. Harborwalk Marina is the third marina on your starboard side as you enter the very protected waters of Georgetown.
Due to last-minute cancellations, Harborwalk Marina has space available for winter layover dockage from December until April. Contact them at
Cruisers Net publishes Loose Cannon articles with Captain Swanson’s permission in hopes that mariners with saltwater in their veins will subscribe. $7 per month or $56 for the year; you may cancel at any time.
At top is Tanner Thomas. Below, Gavin Weisenburg. They face life in prison.
BELOW: Something from my research on Gonâve deserves to be a Tom Hanks mini-series. This is a memoir authored by one of the most fascinating non-commissioned officers ever to serve in the U.S. Marine Corps—Faustin Edmond Wirkus.
Now that two Texas knuckleheads have been indicted for plotting to invade Haiti with an mercenary army of homeless people—on a sailboat—we as a nation have to ask ourselves: When did we start putting people in prison for sharing a pathetic fantasy?
According to their indictment as international terrorists, Gavin Rivers Weisenburg, 21, and Tanner Christopher Thomas, 20, began planning their coup d etat in 2024. They plotted to take a Haitian island by force, murder all its men and then force the women and children to become their sex slaves.
Gonâve, the island in question, comprises 287 square miles and has a population of around 100,000 people. (Not to mention some thousands of machetes.)
Let’s consider an equally plausible scenario:
Inspired by the Three Stooges’ 1957 space voyage to planet Venus, Beavis and Butt-Head plot to hijack a NASA space shuttle and colonize the dark side of the Moon until they are thwarted by famed FBI agent Foghorn Leghorn.
Yeah…Equivalency.
Thomas and Weisenburg don’t know how to sail, and, according to the indictment, could not afford lessons, let alone the price of a boat. And, how big a boat would they have needed to accomodate their putative invasion force? Or was their unwashed army—to be recruited from the District of Columbia’s “unhoused” population—going to fly coach to Port-au-Prince and hop on the Gonâve ferry?
“If anyone’s initial reaction to the government’s sensational press release was, ‘That sounds crazy, wild, impossible, or beyond belief,’ I would encourage them to hold that thought,” said Attorney David Finn, representing Weisenburg.
This is Gonâve’s port city of Anse-à-Galet. It lies approximately 50 miles northwest of the capital, Port-au-Prince.
The indictments were announced Thursday in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas, the charges being “conspiracy to murder, maim or kidnap in a foreign country” and a related “production of child pornography” count. If convicted, Thomas and Weisenburg face up to life in prison.
In court documents, prosecutors argued that the case was extraordinary because of its complexity:
The discovery in this case involves more than 55 GB of data, hundreds of pages of reports and records, thousands of text message communications, and hours of video footage from the execution of search warrants…Because the defendants are charged with an offense alleging acts of international terrorism, all significant pleadings and proposed resolutions must receive the approval of the Department of Justice’s National Security Division’s Counterterrorism Section.
At this point, I am making a plea to a subset of the readership. I know some Loose Cannon subscribers are former prosecutors. My question to you is whether you can indict someone for plotting the impossible, the fantastical. Please share your thoughts in the comments or by direct message.
The words “in furtherance of the conspiracy” are how prosecutors introduce the overt acts that prove the plotters in question really meant it.
For example, Thomas joined the U.S. military in January “for the purpose of obtaining military training that would be use in carrying out their armed coup attack.” He chose the U.S. Air Force because of its famed Tire Machèt martial arts school. (Wait, you say the Air Force doesn’t train recruits in machete combat, or sailing, for that matter.)
But there was more:
Thomas, while in Air Force basic training, successfully changed his initial station assignment from Ramstein Air Base in Germany to Andrews Air Base in Maryland for the dual purposes of 1) remaining in the United States to facilitate the group s armed coup attack, and 2) being located near the District of Columbia to facilitate the recruitment of members of the area’s homeless population to serve as members of their unlawful expeditionary force.
Further evidence: In August 2024, Weisenburg enrolled in the North Texas Fire Academy because that’s where he thought he would learn “command-and-control protocols that would be useful during their armed coup attack.” He flunked out.
Then, in February, Weisenburg flew to Thailand because that’s where one goes to learn how to sail. However, when he got there he found that the cost of training exceeded his budget.
The indictment does not record either man ever having gone to Gonâve or Haiti proper to conduct a proper reconnaisance, even though travel to that country is doable despite general chaos.
Reality Check
Frank Virgintino has built or bought more than 20 marinas, mostly in the Northeastern U.S. (One of these was the Minneford Marina in City Island, New York, on the site of the former Minneford Yacht Yard, builder of several America’s Cup contenders.)
Virgintino began cruising the island of Hispaniola in the 1980s before hardly anyone else was doing so and has written several Caribbean cruising guides, including The Cruising Guide to Haiti, which covers the Gonâve port city of Anse-à-Galets.
Why would anyone choose to invade Gonâve? Virgintino said their motivation might be a result of Haiti’s general collapse combined with Gonâve’s history of isolation from and neglect by the central government:
Gonâve is like an adjunct to Haiti. People there don’t say they’re from Haiti. They say they’re from Gonâve in French or Creole. Right through the 1960s, the people of Gonâve lived with no electricity, no running water and no money. It’s an island that’s caught in a time warp. Maybe, it’s like 1985 right now.
If this story is true, they probably thought it would be easy to topple, since there is no central government in Haiti right now that is functioning, but I don’t believe the story. It sounds like a cover story for something else. I don’t believe that two guys could think they could go in on a sailboat and kill 45,000 men who have knives, guns and machetes.
In another example of “furtherance of conspiracy,” Thomas and Weisenburg “engaged in Haitian Creole language training for the purpose of facilitating their armed coup plot.” (Another cruising guide author based in the Dominican Republic, Bruce Van Sant once wrote, “Creole sounds to a non-speaker as if it only has syllables like la, ba, oo and oh. Haitians also have a penchant for dramatizing everything with real OH’s.”)
If you’ve gotten this far into the story, prepare to be rewarded—something from my research on Gonâve deserves to be a Tom Hanks mini-series. This is a forgotten memoir authored by one of the most fascinating non-commissioned officers ever to serve in the U.S. Marine Corps—Faustin Edmond Wirkus.
Wirkus’ unit was part a force of Marines that occupied Haiti for 19 years, beginning in July 1915. During his deployment Wirkus was engaged in fighting anti-government insurrectionists, at which he excelled, in part because he learned to speak the Haitian Creole language.
The Only Marine To Become a King
Before headlines about Thomas and Weisenburg, the only time Gonâve had ever made news in the U.S. may have been accounts of Wirkus’ adventures there. Which made me wonder whether part of the 55 GB of data in the goverment evidence against Thomas and Weisenburg is a copy of Wirkus’ 1931 book “White King of Gonâve,” which you can download here. The writing is superb and surprisingly modern to the ear.
In the 1920s, Gonâve’s population of 12,000 people was ruled by women, according to its longstanding tradition. Regional queens reported to the top queen, who, besides an air of absolute authority, was in Wirkus’ time distinguished by her ownership of a pair of shoes. Beneath a veneer of Catholism, the religion of the people was straight-up Voodoo, with which Wirkus had become fascinated.
In his late 20s, Sergeant Wirkus had been deputized as a lieutenant in the Haitian gendarmes and assigned to police Gonâve. There, he met the Voodoo queen herself, Ti Memenne, and they developed a relationship based on mutual respect and affection.
The central government did not recognize her authority, and the feeling was mutual. The problem was that Gonâve’s subsistence economy was based entirely on fishing and farming, and 100 percent of Gonâve’s land was government owned, which meant that all farmers were tenants.
The Port-au-Prince tax collectors assigned to the island became rich through corruption. Notoriously, once an individual farm became profitable, officials would evict the family, assign the property to someone else for a price and keep the money. In fact, they had basically been pocketing all the taxes they collected.
Wirkus saw this injustice and got the tax collectors fired—and himself appointed as the head collector. Under Wirkus’ fair administration, some tax revenue went to the central government but monies were also available for Gonâve itself, including for the construction of an airstrip still in use today.
As word spread, Wirkus’ popularity among Gonâve’s people soared. Queen Ti Memenne and her inner circle were also fascinated by the first name given to Wirkus by his Polish-American parents—Faustin—which also happened to be a prominent name in Haitian history. Faustin Soulouque had been emperor of Haiti for a decade until he was overthrown in 1859.
According to Gonâve legend, Faustin would someday return as ruler. Ti Memenne saw Wirkus as a reincarnation of the late emperor, but she had to make certain.
One late night, after a Voodoo celebration with Wirkus in attendance, Ti Memenne and her designated successor-queen led Wirkus by the hand to a seaside cave in which there lived a blind wiseman, who never had to wake up because he never went to sleep.
Ti Memenne hailed the old guy, who came out of his hole in the rock, gave Wirkus a sniff and essentially declared, “Yeah, that’s him alright.”
The next time Wirkus was invited to attend a ritual, he knew he was going to receive some sort of honor, but he was surprised by the size of the crowd. The event was full-on Voodoo—animal sacrifices, trance-like states, wild dancing and non-stop drumming. Here a Marine Corps historian takes up the story:
On the evening of 18 July 1926, Master Sergeant Faustin Wirkus was crowned king of La Gonâve in a Voodoo ceremony. As the drums beat the “Call of the King,” a rhythm designed specifically for Wirkus, he was carried from the Houmfort, or Voodoo temple. In the firelight, the blood of a sacrificed rooster marked his forehead and wrists. He wore the crown of Faustin I. Behind him walked Ti Memenne. The crowd shouted “Le Roi! Vive le Roi Faustin!”
In case you were wondering, Ti Memenne had a husband but the fact of marriage did not make him king. For the next three years, Wirkus—now Faustin II—ruled Gonâve with Ti Memenne, more like mother and son, even though she declared herself subordinate to him.
This whole spectacle created resentment among the Port-au-Prince kleptocracy, and by now Marine command must have worried that Wirkus might be getting too big for his baggy cavalry britches. In 1929, he was reassigned to duties on the Haitian mainland, thus ending a unique chapter in the history of the Corps.
The king and queen of Gonâve and her lady-in-waiting. Note the queen’s shoes, a symbol of her high status. Wirkus died in 1945 and was buried at Arlington National Cemetery.
LOOSE CANNON covers hard news, technical issues and nautical history. Sometimes he tries to be funny. Subscribe for free to support the work. If you’ve been reading for a while—and you like it—consider upgrading to paid.
A longtime CRUISERS NET SPONSOR, historic Edenton always has an exciting calendar of events and places to visit! Edenton is at the mouth of the Chowan River on the northwest shore of Albemarle Sound.
It is almost Thanksgiving!
Thanksgiving is a day for turkey, pumpkin pie, stuffing, and football (if that is your sort of thing). It’s a day to take a breath before the holiday season rush begins. And it’s a day to reflect on all the things we’re thankful for.
And, as I live and work in Edenton. And as I connect with people visiting this great area almost every day, there’s no shortage of things to be thankful for. So, today, in anticipation of the holiday, I would like to reflect a little on why I’m so thankful for Edenton. Because, frankly, there’s a lot to be thankful for.
Great weather
Here in Edenton, the winters are temperate, the fall is filled with perfect sweater weather, and spring greets us with an astonishing array of vibrant colors. Sure, the summer can get a little hot, but the Albemarle Sound keeps things surprisingly temperate, even in the hotter months. Throughout the year, people are visiting Edenton, and virtually no matter when they come, it’s good walking weather. Not every place in this country of ours has this. As the tourism director, I have the opportunity to speak to a lot of people from all around the country, who don’t have things nearly as nice as we do around here.
A thriving downtown community
One of the things that makes Edenton such an easy and wonderful place to visit is the thriving downtown community. In decades past, as commerce fled traditional downtowns for malls and mega-commercial complexes, residents and business owners in Edenton remained committed to Downtown Edenton.
Today, as many other communities struggle to recalibrate amid mall closures and changing commercial real estate trends, our downtown is vibrant, bustling, and driving the local economy. And, it’s growing, too. There is not only a vibrant food scene in downtown Edenton, but also a plethora of unique and interesting stores. Whether you are looking for a quick lunch, sit-down dinner, some after drinks, a great cigar, or antique shopping, there’s something for everyone.
One-of-a-kind history
History is our calling card, no doubt. As the home of governors, Supreme Court justices, and important Revolutionary War figures, and as one of the most important narratives of enslaved people that came out of the antebellum South, Edenton has some very important history. What is even more unusual is how well it has been preserved. Whether you are touring the 1886 Roanoke River Lightouse, the Penelope Barker House, Cupola House, the 1767 Chowan County Courthouse, or any of the other dozens of historically important locations, you’ll see that they stand in such great condition because generations of Edentonians have recognized their value and have kept them standing strong.
Stewards and caretakers
This generation of Edentonians, including myself, stands on the shoulders of generations of residents who worked tirelessly to preserve and care for the history here so it won’t be forgotten. My job is easy because so many people have come before me who have worked tirelessly to put Edenton on the map, create organizations dedicated to historical awareness and preservation, and make Edenton a well-regarded travel destination.
An abundance of interesting events
Whether you come in spring, summer, or fall, there is an abundance of events throughout Edenton and beyond. Many events, such as the Summer Concert Series or the Kickoff to Christmas, involve important partnerships among organizations. Others, like the Sunday street parties in Downtown Edenton, are newer and take place because new businesses have come to the area and want to engage with the community. These events and so many others bring many people to town, creating an engaging and exciting community.
An engaged local government
The year-over-year success and constant growth of our tourism industry doesn’t happen by accident. The fact that more and more people are visiting Edenton every year is a testament to the long-term investment of our local governments. Both Chowan County and the City of Edenton continue to invest in the experience and infrastructure of this community so it can remain an exciting and engaging place to visit.
Generations of residents have invested in this community.
I’ve mentioned this earlier, but the reason so many people visit Edenton is that many people in this town have been investing in this community for decades. Residents open up businesses to create opportunities for visitors to explore this area in interesting and unique ways. Government officials spend time and resources making Edenton the best version of itself it can be. And every organization in this town —from ours to the Chamber of Commerce to Destination Downtown Edenton, and so many others —has spent generations putting this town on the cutting edge of North Carolina tourism.
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