Trips of Discovery

Make the best of your journey, make some memories.

Trips of Discovery - For me, boating is never just about the destination, it's always at least as much about the journey.

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America’s Happiest Seaside Town—Southport, NC

Estimated reading time: 7 minutes – SBFL Stop 28*  – Planing to visit – Happy New Year! Here we are, entering another new year, 2023. It promises to be an interesting one. So, let’s roll back time for a moment and go to 1913. That was the year that the U.S. federal income tax was signed into law, establishing a whopping 1% tax rate. Also, the first sedan (a Hudson) was introduced at a car show. And the first two movie houses in America were opened, one in Manhattan, New York, and the other in the little town of Southport, North Carolina. That is where we are at now, Southport, NC, in our Slow Boat...

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The Ale Trail of Wilmington, NC – Take the challenge

Estimated reading time: 10 minutes – SBFL – Planing to visit – If you’re on the Atlantic Intracoastal Waterway (ICW), delay your departure from Wrightsville Beach, North Carolina, for a few days. Plan an excursion to Wilmington, which is the number one spot on the North Carolina coast to enjoy local craft beer! Take the Wilmington Ale Trail and enjoy the city. This is one of those challenges that squarely falls into the “challenging self” category. The question is can you do it? How about within two days, if not in one day?  All by yourself or with a group of friends and family? The Ale Trail is all about local craft beers and microbrewers...

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Wrightsville Beach, NC – Elevate your beach experience and have every day be an exceptional day

Estimated reading time: 9 minutes – SBFL 27*  – PLANNING TO VISIT – Go ahead, start planning, and have that special escape you’ve dreamed of.  Imagine this, a table for two, exquisitely set up, waiting for you, along with champagne on a beach on, yes, an uninhabited island.  Better yet, imagine that you can afford such a thing even if you’re not a super-rich person. Okay, if this doesn’t entice you, let me up the ante.  Imagine that you find the ultimate glamping setup for a night to be remembered on the same island, having only you there.  Enjoy an evening by the fire, and make s’mores as you relax to the sound of the...

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Beaufort, NC – Make sure to pronounce it as BOW-fert

Estimated reading time: 5 minutes – SBFL 26*  – PLANNING TO VISIT – Allan C. Fisher, Jr, back in 1973, wrote, “We thought Morehead City unattractive, but Beaufort, a community just across the Newport River, is a colonial jewel founded in 1709, nearly a century and a half before Morehead City. Beaufort’s shady streets offer the stroller 25 houses built before the Revolution and more than a hundred that predate the Civil War. Ship carpenters built some of the houses in the waterfront area, and the close-fitting excellence of their handiwork remains evident.” Fisher, senior assistant editor of National Geographic, and his America’s Inland Waterway book published by National Geographic is one of our two...