Take the boat, fish, swim, walk, explore build sand castles, relax and have quality time with family and friends on this barrier island nature preserve.

Its very family friendly – although occasionally they have some party boats, but they tent to congregate around “The Cove” – a small, erm.., cove on the left side as you travel south down the channel.

If you bring your own boat, then make sure you have a stern anchor and use both – this keeps the boat perpendicular with the beach and stops it swinging around and potentially colliding with another. It can get a little crowded on holidays, but regular days you can have the whole island to yourself!

If you anchor up, then be mindful of the tides here as they go out quite quickly and you can be high and dry pretty quickly if you are not careful. We generally move the boat by hand to keep it afloat and at a workable depth for getting on / off board.

If you don’t have a boat, then there is a water taxi from Wrightsville Beach – Masonboro Water Taxi and the famous Shamrock pontoon boat which used to dock from Blockade Runner, but we hear they have a new home – so call ahead first.

The beach at Masonboro is wonderful both sides of the channel. Its a great place to watch the sunset over Wilmington, peaceful and quiet. Very natural place to spend quality bonding time with the family.

One balmy cool evening my husband was fishing on the rocks at the inlet and as the sun was setting a magnificent pod of dolphins came right by – this is why we love this magical spot.