It’s Saturday evening and it l0oks like the wind will FINALLY turn in our favor for a departure out of the Cape Fear River on Sunday morning, early.
We were going to leave today but there were strong winds that were stubbornly blowing from the south, the exact direction that we will be heading. Heading into the wind offshore is definitely not cool. Better to wait for favorable winds. Yes, that’s for me. Totally…
So, instead of heading out today, we stopped in Southport NC, and tied up in a very nice marina to wait for favorable winds. I normally don’t spring for a slip in a “real”marina, but today I was tired from days of motoring down the ICW and decided to pay for a night with the “big kids”.
I went for a walk with my crew Jim to see the sights. The town is very pretty with impressive historic homes framed by massive live oaks. Very southern.
Well, it was a good decision to stop here and get a slip in the marina as it seems that this place is clearly “where it’s at” with a big time fishing tournament going on with literally hundreds of boats competing to see who could catch the biggest king mackerel. With so many participants on the prowl, someone actually caught one that bested the record books for North Carolina, at least, at more than 50lbs.
The tournament is a big deal and I guess that there are thousands in prize money, perhaps many thousands, so the event attracted folks from far and wide.
This photo is of one of the “little guys” that was perhaps half the size of the winning fish. These are pretty big fish. Not like the little mackerels that I caught when I was a kid. And, the boats that go out to catch them are plenty powerful with some in the 30+ foot range with 900hp to push them along at staggering speeds. As this shot shows, there were lots folks that showed up to see what Who caught what. Some of the boats had all sorts of sponsor signs on them. I guess that fishing is a big deal here.
This is a shot of the winning fish that were displayed in a case lined with crushed ice. To give this some scale, the winning fish was something like 6′ long. That clearly qualifies as a “king” mackerel. 
I was told that each fish is weighed and then cut open to be sure that the “catcher” hasn’t stuffed the fish with lead shot or something else that will make the fish heavier. I guess when there’s competition and big money to be had, there’s folks that will cheat. “honest, I have no idea how that ten pound lead chunk got into the fish’s stomach”.
Anyway, the tournament was great fun to experience.
We ended up putting Pandora on the end of a dock with plenty of other boats and as it was the weekend we found ourselves this evening in the midst of a communal dock cookout. We contributed some sausage and to that was added chicken, pork, cobia (whatever that is) as well as tuna and some corn on the cob. All that and pasta salad and all matter of food choices. Someone had even brought pineapple infused rum. Yumm…
To top it all off, there was even a key lime pie in celebration of a “birthday girl”. And no, I didn’t ask how old she was.
One of the boats on the dock is also headed to the FL Keys this winter so perhaps we’ll see them there. In case you missed it, Brenda and I are headed there ourselves.
So, hopefully, we will head out of the Cape Fear River early Sunday to begin our 300nm run to St Mary’s. That should put us there by Tuesday in preparation for our flights home from Jacksonville on Wednesday.
I should close with a shot of Pandora on the dock, dink on the cabin top and ready for her offshore run. 
Wish me luck. I had better get to bed as it’s going to be a long few days as we head south. Unfortunately, it is looking like a motorboat ride. Not a lot of wind in the forecast. Such is the “delivery business”, with deadlines to keep.
Don’t forget, I’ll be posting Pandora’s position every four hours while we are underway. Just check “where’s Pandora”, on this site, for updates.
Oh yeah, Southport is a lovely town. The live oaks are magnificent and it’s fun to visit a spot that Brenda and I enjoyed on our run south two years ago.
Snooze time…