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OAK ISLAND , NC
When it is low tide at the point, there are numerous sandbars on the Holden Beach side of the river channel, where people walk out to find shells and sand dollars. These sandy shoals have to be reached from the Holden Beach side of �The Point�. They cannot be accessed by foot from the Long Beach side of the water.
On Saturday morning, we met two girls and their mother while they were walking along the beach at low tide looking for seashells and sand dollars. We asked them if they had tried looking for them on the shoals from the Holden Beach side. They told us that they had tried out there earlier and had found only a few shells worth keeping.
Bobby and I rather liked the way the girls looked, and by some of the gazes they gave us in return, I would say that they liked us also. The mom wasn�t too bad either.
After talking to them for a few minutes, we found out their names and that they were from Charlotte North Carolina. They were staying over at Holden Beach at a rental house named �The Ranger�, and had driven over to Long Beach, because, they were told that �The Point� was a good place to find shells at low tide.
Bobby and I re-entered the surf while the two girls and their mother walked on around �The Point� to continue their quest for shells and sand dollars.
About two hours later, we saw them in the distance, coming back around �The Point�. Since the tide was about five hours into rise, we knew that they would have to abandon their search for the elusive sand dollar and go back to Holden Beach. We also knew how long it takes to drive to Holden Beach from �the Point�.
From our perspective, Holden Beach was only a short distance across the Lockwood Folly inlet. In fact, we could see the people on the beach over there rather clearly.
It was then that the idea came to us. We could paddle our surfboards over to Holden Beach in less time than it would take them to drive there from the inlet. We would paddle over, find the house where they were staying, and surprise them by being there when they arrived back.
Immediately upon conceiving this brilliant plan, we proceeded about a quarter of a mile down the beach to the river side of �The Point�. Here we put our boards in the water and headed across the inlet to Holden Beach.
After only about five minutes of paddling, we noticed that the tip of Holden Beach, which had previously been straight in front of the nose of our surfboards, was now to the right of our boards, and was moving further right by the minute. It was apparent that we had greatly underestimated the speed, power, and treachery of the outgoing river current. We were moving seaward very quickly. To try and paddle to Holden Beach now meant paddling almost directly against the current. We tried this maneuver, and made no progress at all, except to move further seaward with extremely tired arms dangling from our shoulders.
We then realized that that we would have to abandon paddling and just hold on to our boards. The current had taken us into very heavy breakers where the river current met the sea over numerous sandbars. We did not want to become separated from our boards out there at the bar with large waves breaking all around and over us. We were getting knocked around pretty good out there, not to mention the eddies and strong side currents. We knew that we had to use the same technique as we do in any large surf and that was to paddle seaward, straight into it.
The ocean had become unusually rough that day, with five to eight foot seas even after we had cleared the mouth of the river into the ocean. We had to paddle another two hundred yards to get into deep enough water to be out of the breakers, except for an occasional white cap or two.
After catching our breath for a minute or so, we could see that we were about three quarters of a mile off shore from Long Beach, south of the Lockwood Folly inlet, and about one half mile off shore from the eastern tip of Holden Beach.