Bald Head Island: Where silence is golden

STORY AND PHOTOS BY EILEEN BRADY
THE DAILY NEWS OF JACKSONVILLE, N.C.

The ferry holds the power.
Like a magic carpet, the ferry transports visitors from their hectic, noisy routines to an island where silence — like the sunsets — is golden.
Bald Head Island, just a hundred miles south of Jacksonville, is waiting at the end of the ride, a 30-minute shedding of worries and schedules. Of course, the ferry holds the power to bring those visitors back to reality at the end of their stay, but tanned skin and clearer minds make the return trip a little easier to stomach.
The ferry is the lifeline to Southport and to “civilization” for the permanent residents of Bald Head Island, whose numbers increase each year. There is no bridge to Bald Head. Electric golf carts are the general mode of transportation, so

the sports utility vehicles so cherished on the cul-de-sacs are relegated to wait it out in Southport.

Jo Betts Baxley, who has raised her 13-year-old and 10-year-old sons on the island since they were toddlers, is a little baffled by concerns that riding a boat “to town” would become tiresome. 
“I’d much rather be riding in a boat than sitting in traffic for 45 minutes,” Baxley says. “My boatpool is a lot better than a carpool. I don’t see the drawbacks.”
To get to school, Hayes and Britton Baxley take the ferry each morning, one on the 6:30 a.m. boat, one on the 7:30 boat.
“It’s like their school bus,” says Baxley, who made a permanent move from Savannah, Ga., with her family in the late 1980s. When they became year-round residents, they were among about 20 others, Baxley says. Now they have about 100 full-time neighbors.
The Baxleys have lived on the ocean, now on the river. They’re soon moving to their third house, at “middle island,” which is shaded by maritime forest.
“We’ve weathered many storms,” Baxley says. “I’d rather have the protection of being off the beach.”
Her husband, Harry, is an architect who still must travel to the mainland for his job. Hayes and Britton, however, have their own business at Bald Head, with help from their mom. They conduct kayaking tours during the summer months, giving ecology lessons about the creeks and their inhabitants. They host about three groups a week. 
Their kayaking duties will subside when the boys start school again, and autumn brings a slower pace for much of Bald Head. Prices for accommodations decrease in September, but the weather is still warm enough to hang out at the beach: the average high is 84, and the average low is 71, nearly the same as in June and July. Weekend packages for two start at about $400, but the best deals are made by banding together with several friends and renting a house that sleeps six or eight.
Day trips are a possibility for those who want to see the island on a tight budget. Round-trip ferry passage, parking and lunch at the River Pilot Cafe is $29 per person. Reservations are required.
Be forewarned: Tranquility is addictive.
Between early-morning lawn-mowing neighbors, speeding cars, buzzing motorcycles, humming computers and the general sound of people in a hurry, it’s amazing we can hear any of our thoughts.
But take away that noise, and it’s amazing how clear the mind becomes. Although you can hear the golf cart tires spinning along one of the myriad paved roads that criss-cross the island, if you stop in the middle of the forest to watch a butterfly crossing your path, you’ll swear you can hear its wings cutting through the air.
Quieter modes of transportation are available, too: bicycles or feet. Most places are within a 20-minute bike ride. And a walk around the island at night, in silence, is even more relaxing without the fear of meeting the same fate as so many unfortunate possums.
It’s a slower pace, but it fulfills Americans’ vacation goal of “spending time with family and friends,” according to a recent Newsweek poll. It’s a pace Jo Baxley prefers. “You get on I-40 and you feel like you’re in New York City,” she says.
Her sons, who spend their time on Bald Head fishing, crabbing, clamming, swimming, boating and kayaking, also have developed a fondness for their calm surroundings.
Baxley recalls taking the boys to Washington, D.C., when they were 6 and 9. They were on their second day of making the Smithsonian rounds when little Hayes decided he had had enough. “Mama, I’m city-sick,” he said. “There’s just too much of everything.”