Not every bucket list features an item that includes “The Graveyard of the Atlantic,” and that’s where my brother, Stephen, and I took our annual bro-cation. Off the coast of Wilmington, North Carolina, hundreds of sunken vessels play host to sharks, barracuda, grouper, and scuba divers who can’t get enough of the intensely immersive experience.
We chose the old port city, about a five-and-a-half-hour drive from Greenville, for a two-day dive excursion to earn our Advanced Open Water certificate, to go deeper than we’d ever gone before.
On the surface, Wilmington’s vibe is hard to figure out. It’s not Charleston, it’s not Savannah, and it’s not Greenville. It seems to be navigating toward . . . something: a tourist destination (without the horses and carriages), a foodies’ mecca, a living-history maritime museum? “It’s not sure what it wants to be yet,” a Wilmington native told us at the dive shop—we’ll spare his name here.
During a Sunday morning stroll along the downtown historic district’s red-bricked streets, we came across a floating bar at the creaky boardwalk, only a few blocks long. A skull-and-crossbones drooped over the joint, named after notorious eighteenth-century pirate Anne Bonny. On deck, a couple dozen people bobbed to the rhythm of the Cape Fear River’s gentle current during a worship service.
Gentrification is creeping up the numbered streets; an incongruous mix of beach-y bungalows and trailers lies within walking distance of nineteenth-century mansions and $2 million homes rebuilt, probably more than once, after various hurricanes.
“It was a little hard to get the full scope of Wilmington since we were focused on scuba and all the energy it takes to do that,” Stephen says, “but if you had the time you could really enjoy what the city has to offer from an architecture and history standpoint.”
NC Dives
Our first dives on Saturday took us to The Hyde, a 215-foot-long dredge vessel about 18 miles offshore. The next day, we dived the Alexander Ramsey, which like the Hyde, was sunk intentionally as an artificial reef. While nowhere near as romantic as swimming through a pirate ship filled with pieces of eight or centuries-old bottles of wine or rum, the World War II-era ships still make for compelling, though you shouldn’t say “breathtaking,” sightseeing.
If you’ve never experienced scuba, diving offers intense moments of Zen. You float in what feels like zero gravity. Bubbles accompany your Darth Vader breathing. Ocean life makes you wonder that much more about Nature’s overwhelming abundance. You are entirely engaged in The Present Moment.
“A lot of people don’t know about North Carolina diving,” our dive instructor, Peyton Whisnant, tells our five classmates. “It’s the undiscovered gem.”
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