August 2022

Once upon a time there was a beautiful young woman named Kiana. She was living in Bocas del Toro, Panama, aboard a 75-foot Polynesian catamaran when she fell in love. It was not your ordinary kind of love. This was between the girl and a boat, the Mara Noka, age 50. It may have been…

Two local fishing camp operators have cast aside financial concerns in favor of building a legacy and making a positive impact on the community. Both Jordan Nason of Wilmington Fish Camp and Christopher Shulstad of Carolina Coast Kids Fishing Camp realized that other endeavors would likely be more lucrative, but the chance to share their…

There’s something about a warm breeze dancing through a seasoned, wooden beach house that melds things together: days and nights, water and sand, heat and humidity, salty and savory. Each piece of summer produce finds a way to complement another, no matter how different they seem. From juicy watermelon and spicy jalapeño to crunchy cabbage…

What was once a plain, no-frills structure made of steel beams and concrete is today an eye-catching industrial-style office building for a local land development company. Across the street from the State Port Authority, the former North Carolina Department of Agriculture Gas and Oil Calibration Station has been recalibrated into the modern headquarters of a…

When her husband brought home a bag full of bright yellow lemons, Virginia Wright-Frierson arranged them in one of her mother’s French Quimperware bowls and brought them to her studio. “I said, ‘I need to paint these lemons before we use them.’ I put a real strong light on them, I love strong shadows, I…

Wilbur Bonnet handed his backpack to the mate, Squiggy, and stepped down into the cockpit of the Dawn Lee. The sun started to break over the horizon. Squiggy introduced the three men who would be fishing with Wilbur on this charter. The captain was on the flybridge and had the engines running. As soon as…

Hunters must purchase and sign a Federal Duck Stamp to legally hunt waterfowl. The nearly $40 million per year proceeds from the stamp and artwork land in the Migratory Bird Conservation Fund to preserve over 6 million acres of wetlands vital to migratory birds and other species of animals. Stamps are valid July through June…

In the January 2019 issue of Wrightsville Beach Magazine, a story entitled “State Weed, The Rise of Industrial Hemp Farming in North Carolina,” explained the history and uses for hemp in an experimental five-year state approved growing phase. At that time, it was considered by many to be the next big cash crop in the…

When she was a child, Laura Goodwin decided that she would someday swim from England to France. That day came on July 11, when Goodwin completed the storied English Channel swim. “It is finally beginning to sink in that I made it,” she said a couple of days later. “What I feel right now is…

In late May/early June an unusual craft was anchored in the waters in and around Wrightsville Beach. My phone rang one Sunday night. The caller told me about the boat. We made plans for me to go out with photographer Allison Potter and meet the captain. The story of the Mara Noka and her captain,…