Road Work Ahead, N.C. Summer Trip 2014-- Part 26: The Fort Fisher-Southport Ferry

After our walk on "The Rocks," my brother and I returned to the car and drove the eighth of a mile to the Fort Fisher-Southport Ferry and bought our ticket, $5 for the car and occupants, for the 30-minute trip across the Cape Fear River near its mouth.

The crossing is quite an experience and well worth the money.  Otherwise, if you want to cross to the west side of the river, you have to drive about twenty miles to Wilmington, cross the river on a bridge and drive twenty miles south to Southport.

We kind of kept our fingers crossed to be one of the fortunate cars to get on the ferry as often during the summer, you can end up waiting another 30 minutes or more.  We made it by seven cars.

The ferry leaves every 30 minutes and passes the one coming from Southport in mid channel.  You can get out of the vehicle once underway and walk around or go to the observation deck on the superstructure.  We had a rough crossing today because of winds and the folks who chose to stand up at the front of the boat were fairly-well doused with one wave after another.  A real water ride if you will.

As we closed on the Southport dock, i saw the remains of the forward light station of what used to be the Price's Creek Range Lights which were built in the late 1850s and served as a Confederate signal station during the Civil War.  I have written a lot about this in my Running the Blockade blog.

A Nautical Voyage.  --RoadDog