- 37.5 miles
- 4 hours 35 minutes
- 8.2 mph average speed
- 5-9 mph winds
Southport is a charming town overlooking the Cape Fear River and has been the setting of many movies, including Nicolas Sparks’ “Safe Haven”. We visited the Fort Johnston-Southport Museum and the Maritime Museum. There are about 100 homes from the mid to late 1800’s in the downtown historic area.
The absolute highlight of our time in Southport was spending time on Robert and Kay Creech’s front porch! Robert and Kay have been Harbor Hosts for the AGLCA for many years and regularly speak at the AGLCA Rendezvous. I believe they completed the Loop in 2008-2009. They graciously invite all Loopers that stop in Southport to their home to visit and enjoy “porch tails ” rather than “dock tails”. Robert checks NEBO and walks the docks of the marina every day to make sure everyone knows they are invited. We were in Southport for three nights and went to the their porch every night. The first night, there were 23 Loopers which almost beat their recent record of having 24 Loopers. There were 10 of us the second night and 8 of us the third night. Such a great time getting to meet other Loopers and exchange stories as well as get wonderful advice from the Creech’s.
We had a delicious dinner at Provisions Company. Orders for dinner are placed at the kitchen when you first walk in and they bring the food out to the covered porch. In the meantime, patrons help themselves to beer, wine, tea or soda (or get a mixed drink at the bar). Once the meal is finished, the patrons check out back where they placed their dinner order. The ticket is found and the patrons are then on the honor system of letting the cashier know what they had to drink. Two sweet teas for us that night!
It was a full moon and also a lunar eclipse the night we were there. By the time we had finished our dinner, the whole area was flooded and we had to walk along the dock on the backside of the restaurant and jump to another dock to get out.
Ellen stayed up late to watch the Flower Moon Eclipse. It was a real treat as the sky was clear and she had a great view from the flybridge.
Kay Creech was also kind enough to offer to take anyone who needed provisions to Walmart and I gratefully took her up on the offer!