Following a good night sleep, we 'set sail' around 11:00 am down the Intercoastal Waterway (ICW) fueling up while having a quick lunch on board in Southport, NC.
Coming out of the river into the intercoastal waterway there were many branches and logs floating with the current that we had to carefully dodge. At one point we almost hit what appeared to be a giant telephone pole! John had to swerve mightily and put on the brakes (which is just throwing the boat into neutral so the propellor won't get bent if it hits). I thought if we hit this pole we would just bend the props - as we have done once before and just had to take a day to get it fixed. But later John mentioned that a GIANT pole like this one could've put a hole in the boat big enough to sink us! I was super uneasy about that as I didn't think that was a possibility. Between me and this page, we don't have a tender anymore, so with no life boat and only life vests, if we began to sink, we would have to abandon ship and swim to shore. The swim would be short since we're in rivers and canals for most of the rest of our journey, but I think it is still super scary given sharks and maybe alligators in the south? So now I'm wanting to give up my yoga deck and get another tender!
The cruise was pretty and peaceful with perfect weather but through a very narrow channel with sand bars on each side so we had to be super careful ... and lucky :). And, there was a slight miscalculation on the mileage... John thought it was 50 miles and it was more like 80 so instead of arriving at 2:30 it was 6:30 before we finally got to Myrtle Beach, SC as we can't go more than 8 or 9 knots due to the towns, docks and houses along the ICW.
After docking, travesty ensued as when John was ready to make an evening cocktail, he found we were on the last inch of Crown Royal! And then, Hurricane Matthew was reported to be coming our way! And only one drink for John :/. We had some serious planning to do!
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