It was a short run from Bird Island to St. James Marina, and a beautiful day to do it. St. James Marina is a small marina in a massive planned community called St. James Plantation. We discovered that St. James Plantation was never an actual plantation, and motions have been made to exclude the word from the name over the years.

That said, it’s a cute marina mainly for smaller boats. We pulled up to the fuel dock for diesel and a pump out. We were assigned a slip that was easy to get into, and we settled in. There is a dry storage facility here that has been busy. The marina is surrounded by beautiful homes and is protected from any kind of wind, wake, and waves.

What this marina lacks is proximity to ANYTHING. This was okay for us because we were leaving for a trip home and then to the AGLCA Rendezvous. But there was no Uber or Lyft service, and we ended up calling a taxi to take us to the Wilmington airport for $100 one way.

But, we do have a dinghy, and we dinghied about six miles over to Southport for a nice dinner and walk. We went to the Southport Provision Company, which had been recommended but wasn’t very good. The experience was nice, though, because we pulled our dinghy right up to the restaurant and remained docked there while we walked through town. Unfortunately, most stores were closed because it was a Monday evening. But we loved strolling along the waterfront admiring the houses with their large porches. Such a cute town!

We went home for a little while and then to the AGLCA Rendezvous, and we had a rental car when we got back. We were thrilled to be able to get groceries and stock up before the next segment of our trip. We also ate at Oliver’s in Southport, which was very good and more our speed. The shrimp and grits here were top 5 ever, in my opinion.

The rental car had to go back to the airport, so it was another $100 cab ride back to the marina. To give you an idea of how big this St. James Plantation is, it’s a 5-mile drive from the main gate to the marina. It’s full of winding roads, a golf course, some community buildings, and small parks. I took a little walk around one of the days we were there and enjoyed a nearby park.

St. James was a great place to leave the boat. They have a two-week max, but it looks like they might be flexible on that. We had a great slip that was unmolested during the week. The staff was really nice, particularly Walter and the dockhands. There’s no strange foot traffic there because it’s in a gated community. However, if you want to explore Southport, you’ll probably want to stay closer to Southport because St. James is quite isolated. It fit our needs just perfectly, though, and we were happy to be there!