Cape Lookout Bight
NOAA ENC chart tiles · planning aid, not for navigation
Right now at this spot
oldest reading 54 min agoSmall boats will get beat up. Pick your heading and slow down.
The sea state in that call was measured 32.3 nm away at NDBC 41159 — that is open water, not this basin.
What that call is built on
- · Observed wind WSW 7 kt gusting 11 — NDBC BFTN7 · Beaufort
- · Observed seas 3 ft — NDBC 41159 · Onslow Bay
- · Adjacent sounds and rivers moderate chop — NWS AMZ158
The best natural anchorage in North Carolina — a full hook of protection behind the cape, and the lighthouse right there. Big enough to hold a hundred boats. Plan on an overnight, not a day trip.
The tide today
4.0 ft right nowBest window to be here. Aim for the window around high water at 11:45 — this spot is tide-sensitive.
- It is a sandbar — the ground under you changes with the water.
When is the sand out?
Cape Lookout Bight does not go under — it sits above high water and stays there all day. What the tide moves here is the width of the sand and the depth under your anchor: low 5am at 1.3 ft, high 11:40am. The sand is widest either side of 5am.
The tide is falling and has about 2.5 more feet to go, bottoming at 6:05pm. Nose onto sand now and you are on hard ground until some time after midnight — further ahead than today's curve reaches. This is how people spend the night on a bar. Anchor off in water you can still swim in, and re-set as it drops.
Deep, huge and protected. This is the one spot on the list where the tide is not the thing that decides your day.
This is a rule of thumb, not a survey. Nobody has measured the height of this sand to a datum, so the times are the tide curve run against a threshold we chose — treat them as give or take three quarters of an hour, and tell us if we're wrong.
Tide curve: NOAA 8656841 Cape Lookout Bight, six-minute predictions, MLLW. Height of the sand: No threshold. The Bight is an anchorage inside a cape, not a bar.
What’s biting here
All speciesPeak month, and 78°F is right in their band.
Min 18" total length · 1 per person per day
Peak month, and 78°F is right in their band.
Min 14" total length · 3 per person per day
Peak month, and 78°F is right in their band.
Unlawful to possess right now.
Ranked on the month and the measured water temperature. Limits are North Carolina’s current rules — confirm with DMF before you keep anything.
Depth
Getting there
from Wrightsville BeachWhat else is out here
straight line, true bearingLive from the water
Know before you go
Comments
Conditions, tides and alerts are live from NOAA CO-OPS, the National Weather Service and NDBC. Distance, run time, fuel and clearance are calculated from your boat profile. Member depth reports are corrected to the datum at the moment they are filed. Planning aid only — not for navigation. Carry current charts.