WILMINGTON — Although summer officially starts at June’s Summer Solstice, the waterways of Wilmington and Wrightsville Beach were packed with boats as Memorial Day weekend kicked off the unofficial summer season.
Jorge Perez had parked his boat near the marshes of Mason Inlet. Family and friends were camped out beneath an umbrella, sitting in two feet of high-tide water as they cooled off from temperatures that stayed in the high-90s most of Saturday.
“It’s a time to enjoy family, friends, and decompress from reality a little bit,” Perez said.
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Further down Mason Inlet toward Figure Eight Island, seven boats had anchored in a cluster as people walked from boat to boat sipping beers and listening to country music.
In the late afternoon, many boaters had made their way to Dockside Restaurant on the Intracoastal Waterway. On the deck, a row of people looked out as boats entered the marina to tie up to the restaurant’s dock.
Andrew Thomasson was sitting at the bar inside the restaurant’s screened-in porch, sipping on a whiskey ginger.
“You gotta love Wilmington,” Thomasson said. “I’ve been here for a little over a year now, and the scene out here is unbelievable. There’s people everywhere and drinks are flowing.”
View photos of Memorial Day weekend on the Intracoastal below:
Mark Darrough can be reached at Mark@Localvoicemedia.com
