Morningstar Marina - Southport, NC

Most Recent Visit: November 2023​
Our visit to this rather large marina was very brief and did not include any time in the town or surrounding areas. We understand that there are a number of shops and restaurants within walking distance. The marina is immediately adjacent to the ICW with a narrow entrance. The long fuel dock is easily accessible, however they dock some of the larger yachts there leaving less space for fueling. 

The floating docks are very nice and the staff was very helpful with fueling and docking. I used Dockwa to make the reservation and the marina was very quick to respond with a vacancy and provide some basic marina information in advance. The fairways may seem a little narrow and tight in windy conditions as we experienced on our departure. We took it slow and exited the marina without any incident, but it did give us a little concern during our planning. The marina grounds are in good shape and the dockmaster's office includes a modest ship's store. The marina WiFi was fine, however we found the bathroom facilities to be inadequate for a marina of this size. The bathrooms were clean and a code was required for after hours use, but they just weren't large enough to handle the number of customers.

You can't beat the convenience of this marina when cruising this area of the ICW or if you are entering from the ocean on the Cape Fear River. On this southerly trip we came in the Masonboro Inlet, passed Carolina Beach, entered the Cape Fear River via Snows Cut.