Six towns along the Albemarle Sound in northeastern North Carolina are hoping to bring more tourists to their waterfront downtowns. Thanks to $15 million in state funding, the "Harbor Towns" project is adding cruises, passenger ferries and improved docking facilities to attract visitors.
The idea is to lure Outer Banks tourists inland to spend a day cruising around the small towns of Manteo, Columbia, Plymouth, Edenton, Hertford and Elizabeth City. It's a project that's been decades in the making: Local leaders and tourism officials first floated the idea of connecting Inner Banks towns through boats on the Albemarle Sound 40 years ago.
Philip McMullan, 95, is one of the people who came up with the idea, and he's now serving on Harbor Towns' board. He celebrated his birthday recently with a dinner cruise from Edenton on the Albemarle Queen, a paddlewheel boat that's been rotating between the Albemarle Sound towns for public cruises, festivals and private events.
"It's taken a long, long time," McMullan said, pointing to past opposition to the project when it was first proposed. "The Chamber of Commerce at the Outer Banks heard about what we were trying to do, and went to (then-Senate leader) Marc Basnight, who ran the state at the time, and told Marc, ‘they're trying to steal our customers down here,'" McMullan recalled. "So all of a sudden, all our support disappeared."
Fast-forward a few decades, and new leaders have replaced Basnight in the state legislature. Rep. Ed Goodwin, R-Chowan, secured $5 million in the 2022 state budget to buy the Albemarle Queen and two passenger ferries.
The Albemarle Queen had its first full season this year, and Harbor Towns director Nick Didow says more than 1,500 people took a ride this summer — spending time and money in the waterfront downtowns during their visits.
"We've learned that we can draw people from up in Tidewater, Virginia, and up from Greenville and Wilson and Rocky Mount and even Raleigh," Didow said.
But while the Albemarle Queen is popular for out-and-back cruises, it’s too slow to connect towns across the sound.
Harbor Towns has two high-speed passenger ferries for that effort, but so far, they haven’t been able to operate regular services connecting the six towns. Didow says they’ve proven expensive to operate and have had problems.
"We encountered manufacturing problems and mechanical problems all last summer with them, so they are still available for people who want to engage them for an event or a special group outing," he said. "But frankly, it was just last week that the Coast Guard finally passed them as serviceable because of the problems that we've been facing with them."
Harbor Towns’ leaders are considering whether to sell the ferries and try another approach for bringing tourists across the Albemarle Sound.
"We're actually rethinking about whether those are the right boats to have in motion," Didow said. "We're working hard to try to figure out what our options are and what we might do along this path."
Hertford Mayor Ashley Hodges says he’s disappointed the ferries haven’t yet been able to connect his historic downtown to some of its busier neighbors. Due to a nearby bridge, the Albemarle Queen hasn't been able to offer cruises from downtown Hertford. But he’s optimistic it’ll happen eventually.
"I can almost see the town docks from my house, and being able to just walk down there, hop on a boat and go down to Manteo and come back four or five hours later without getting in a car is just an amazing, amazing concept," Hodges said. "I can't tell you that we weren't disappointed that it kind of stumbled out of the gate. ... We feel like they'll get it figured out."
For now, the Albemarle Queen is becoming an attraction at annual festivals in each of the towns, and Managing Director Ted Warren is adding special events.
"We're doing a haunted Halloween cruise," he said. "We're doing the Columbia Scuppernong Festival. So those events really do bring a lot of people outside of the area, and the more we can put that boat in front of them, the better."
More state funding for waterfront improvements
Harbor Towns is also overseeing a $10 million grant from the 2023 state budget to upgrade waterfront docks and facilities in each of the towns.
It’s using the money to build better bathroom and shower facilities, improved docks and boat slips, as well as pump stations.
Didow says the goal is to attract boaters traveling up and down the East Coast to venture into the Albemarle Sound and stop for a night or two.
"It is rare if any boat off the Intercoastal Waterway comes over into the Albemarle Sound, and the reason is because they can't be accommodated well," he said.
In Hertford, wider docks and a more attractive walking connection to its main street will be part of larger revitalization that includes the renovation of the historic State Theatre, Hodges said.
"We certainly see the river, the water, the sound access as being, very critical and very central to the amenities that we offer," he said.
Construction has already begun in Edenton and Elizabeth City, and Harbor Towns is working with the other towns to finalize their plans.
