Masonboro Island
NOAA ENC chart tiles · planning aid, not for navigation
Right now at this spot
oldest reading 51 min agoSmall boats will get beat up. Pick your heading and slow down.
The sea state in that call was measured 6 nm away at NDBC 41110 — that is open water, not this basin.
What that call is built on
- · Forecast wind SW 15 kt gusting 20 — NWS AMZ250 · Today
- · Observed seas 1.6 ft — NDBC 41110 · Masonboro Inlet
The one everybody goes to. Anchor bow-out on the ICW side of the north end, walk over to the ocean beach. No facilities, no trash cans — pack it out. Gets shoulder-to-shoulder by 11am on a Saturday.
The tide today
4.4 ft right nowBest window to be here. Aim for the window around high water at 00:01 or 12:43 — this spot is tide-sensitive.
- It is a sandbar — the ground under you changes with the water.
When is the sand out?
Masonboro Island 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 5:40am at 1.0 ft, high 12:40pm. The sand is widest either side of 5:40am.
The tide is falling and has about 3.0 more feet to go, bottoming at 6:40pm. 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.
The island is above high water and stays there. What the tide decides at Masonboro is the sound-side sand you anchor off and whether you are still floating at four o'clock.
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 8658145 Shinn Point, ICWW, six-minute predictions, MLLW. Height of the sand: No threshold, because the island does not cover. The shipped knowledge line describes anchoring bow-out on the ICW side and walking over — an anchoring question, not an exposure question.
What’s biting here
All speciesPeak month, and 76°F is right in their band.
Min 18" total length · 1 per person per day
Peak month, and 76°F is right in their band.
Min 14" total length · 3 per person per day
Peak month, and 76°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.