Ask a local in Carolina Beach about the boardwalk, and you might hear that it’s bright and colorful and fun. And it is. Between pastel-colored buildings, flashing carnival rides, and local food, it’s an inviting destination for families.

But you also might hear how it hasn’t always been this way. The story goes that in the ’80s the boardwalk began to decline. Shops closed up. Carnival rides stopped. Tourists abandoned it.

During the next decade, community efforts to beautify and improve Carolina Beach took shape, and today the beach town is known all over the country for its family-friendly atmosphere and rebuilt, expanded wooden boardwalk.

We left the marina at 8AM in thick fog to catch the 10AM opening of the “Figure Eight” drawbridge. This is the first fog we’ve encountered since the trip. Not a problem – we’re New England sailors. The sky cleared a few miles from the drawbridge, the bridge that carries tourists and residents to Carolina & Wrightsville Beach. We watch two dolphins swimming in with the tide from Motts Channel, the curving cut that connects with Banks Channel. Minutes later more of them swam right next to our boat, in and out of the water for the next 5 minutes as we cheered them on with joy. This is the most dolphins we’ve seen since the New Jersey coast.

We arrived in Carolina Beach harbor around 1PM to sunny skies and a wonderful
warm beach breeze and pickuped a mooring. From the harbor, we can hear and smell the waves of the Atlantic Ocean few hundred yards away. Is there anything better than the smell of salty beach air?  We dinghy to the town dock and walked a block over to the beach and spent the afternoon walking the beach, explore the boardwalk (named one of the most awesome boardwalks in America by Budget Travel).  It’s lined with benches and swings that overlook gorgeous dunes and the beach.  How relaxing to enjoy an ice cream while swinging. We had steamed shrimp, flounder & hush-puppies at the Hurricane Alley watching surfers riding wave without too much success. But life was good for everyone.