Dutchman Creek

6/22/15
Southport NC
Posted by Bill

When we are in a marina for an extended period of time like we are now, every once in awhile we will jump in the dinghy and do some exploring. It is an 11 foot Zodiac rigid bottom inflatable with a 9.9 HP motor, and we can get it on plane, which moves us along pretty well. In the Cape Fear area there are lots of creeks and side rivers to check out, and most recently we went up Dutchman Creek. It is about 2 miles west of our marina, along the ICW, and the creek itself is 1.5 miles long. The map below has a blue line showing the route to get to the creek.
Dutchman Creek Trip

As you motor up, there is a small basin to the left with a boat ramp, a beach to land the dinghy, and a really nice playground for kids. There are also about 6 or so boats that seemed to be permanently anchored there, and one that sank:
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A little further up we saw more boats anchored in the middle of the creek, and another sunken one:
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I just amazes me that people would neglect their boat to the point that it sinks, and then just leave it there! It becomes a navigation hazard and I am sure there are environmental impacts…how irresponsible! It reminds me of the anchor problem we had in Lake Worth, FL.

The further we went, the more brown the water became and it also was very warm:
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There are supposed to be alligators, but we didn’t see anything like that. We came back down the creek and went to a marina designated by the red arrow on the map. There was a bar there called The Dead End Saloon that we had lunch at. The food was marginal, but they have Woodchuck hard cider there for $3 a can. It is our favorite cider and we have not been able to get it in too many places in this area.

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