Carolina Beach State Park - At their dock

The entrance is just beyond the tree in the foreground

We didn't go very far today. The current didn't change in our favor until 10:00 am going up the Cape Fear river so we didn't get an early start. Then again, we're in no rush so we made our way north to the Carolina Beach State Park and their $30/night dockage fee which also includes electricity. On the way in we did see the depth come up to 4.7 MLW, a little less water than last year but still okay, especially since we didn't go in at low tide and even then we only draw 4' 9". Once inside, the depths remained in the 5.5 MLW range at "A" dock.

The hiking trails will even take you through a swamp as you see here;

The marina here is really a camping park with lots for tent camping and small RV's. With that, the marina is manned by park rangers that know nothing about boats. You will probably not get help docking. We didn't but the boat after us did get help so it happens sometimes.

We are docked at the extreme right on "A" dock

The park has many hiking trails which are always fun to explore and they also have a sandy beach with fishing piers and kayaks to rent. They have a viewing area for painted buntings and a trail that features venus flytraps.

If that's not enough, there's all of Carolina Beach to explore with a rented car from a nearby Enterprise. We will just be here for one day so we're content to hike the trails and set out Wednesday for Swan's Point Marina. We'll have three bridges to pass through and two only open once an hour on top of the hour. They are real pains since they are not spaced for sailboat speeds to make without waiting, unlike the ones in Florida just north of Ft Lauderdale. So we expect it will be a long day before we arrived at our dock.