The Pirates Are Coming!!!

The Old Baldy Lighthouse and Smith Island Museum of History (on nearby Bald Head Island) are staging a weekend day pirate extravaganza event in conjunction with National Lighthouse Day. Read more

Free Movies At The Waterfront

The town of Southport NC will offer a free series of movies from May 25 through Dec. 10. Tuesday Tunes will begin at 6 p.m. at the Garrison House off Davis Street.

Movies at the waterfront will begin June 11 and begin at various times:
8:30 p.m., June 11: “Jaws”
8:30 p.m., July 9 p.m.: “The Blind Side”

8 p.m., Aug. 11: “Marley & Me”

7:30 p.m., Sept. 10: “Mary Poppins”
7 p.m., Oct. 8: “An Affair to Remember”
6:30 p.m, Oct. 30: “Pirate Kids” and “Pirate Kids 2”
5:30 p.m., Dec. 10: “The Polar Express in 3D”

Free Summer Concerts

The town of Southport NC will offer free concerts throughout the Summer from May 25 through August 29th.

“Tuesday Tunes” will begin at 6 p.m. at the Garrison House off Davis Street.

Her’s the concert schedule:
May 25: Blind Manifest, variety
June 22: Da Howlies, Hawaiian swing
July 27: Sea Pans, steel drums
Aug. 29: Zion Hill Adult Choir & Praise Dancers, gospel

Spend An Unforgettable Day!

Come to the beach and take in some history at Brunswick Town/Fort Anderson Historic Site and Orton Plantation. Read more

Orton Plantation 100th Anniversary

Orton Plantation, which opens for the 2010 season today, is celebrating the 100th anniversary of the gardens with the Spring 2010 season. Extensive renovations have been made in the gardens to open up panoramic views to the Cape Fear River, remove competing vegetation, redesign and enhance the flower beds and restore and preserve the colonial rice fields. Read more

Local Author’s Books: Huge Hit!

Local Author and Illustrator Miller Pope has spent a lifetime as an artist Read more

White Ibis Island Sanctuary

Battery Island, located just off of Southport, NC in the Cape Fear River, is home to the largest White Ibis nesting population in southeastern North Carolina. For many years, this 100-acre Audubon Sanctuary has been the site of North Carolina’s largest gathering of breeding wading birds. Herons, egrets, and ibises flock to the island by the thousands each spring. Since 1982, the island has been guarded and protected by the National Audubon Society.

Each year, between 9,000 and 15,000 breeding pairs of white ibises, nearly all that nest in the state, as well as hundreds of breeding pairs of herons and egrets, descend on the Sanctuary to nest and raise their young. The island has always been vital to North Carolina’s wading bird population and, recently, was designated as “globally important” for the great numbers of white ibises that nest on the island every year. (Approximately 12% of the global white ibis population nests at Battery Island.)

In 1996 the Cape Fear Garden Club of Wilmington, NC stepped forward to officially adopt the sanctuary and assist with the protection and management of the island. Since that time, the Cape Fear Garden Club has donated more than $20,000 in support of this Audubon Sanctuary.

Battery Island is posted and patrolled throughout the year, and is off-limits to visitors. Protecting the island, the nesting birds and their habitats is essential to conserving wading birds in North Carolina. The Cape Fear Garden Club offers a guided boat tour of the sanctuary every spring, check their website for more details.

Area Winery Wins Medals

An award winning winery near Southport, NC? Its true and the awards keep coming!Ocean Isle Beach’s Silver Coast Winery has been awarded six medals in the 2008 Wines of the South competition at the UT Conference Center in Knoxville TN.

With these six medals added to those won over the past six years the total awarded the winery comes to the 219 awards! Silver Coast Winery received bronze medals for its 2006 American Oak Chardonnay, 2005 Seyval Blanc and 2002 Merlot and silver medals for its Premium Oak Chardonnay, 2005 Reserve Merlot and 2004 Treasure.

Silver Coast Winery Winter hours (January & February) for tours and tastings are offered from noon to 5pm Wed – Sunday. For more info visit the winery’s site at: silvercoastwinery.com or call 910.287.2800

For more about the site read our archived story here!

Amazing Seafood

Sharky’s Waterfront Restaurant does fried shrimps, panko crusted shrimps, hush puppies with shrimps in ‘em, chilled spiced shrimps, salads with shrimps, boiled shrimps…

Well you get the message – see their new menu to see all the ways they do shrimps! Then there’s them oysters -don’t get me started! Better just go on by and try ‘em with a cold beer or other beverage.

At Sharky’s you can enjoy great food overlooking a fabulous view of the waterway. You can tie up your boat at Sharky’s dock. Thoroughly casual, Sharky’s is fun for the whole family.

Located by the bridge at nearby Ocean Isle Beach, Sharky’s is a great destination to go by boat (or by car).

The new menu at Sharky’s offers a wide selection from Lite Bites (Panko Crusted Shrimp, Calypso Ribs, Oyster & Corn Chowder, etc.), hand tossed pizza, a nice selection of hot and cold subs, soups and salads as well as daily specials such as Grouper, Mahi Mahi and more.

Come check out the new improved Sharky’s