200 nautical miles

We left around 4 am this morning. The seas were steep 6-9 ft waves from the south. The wind was building to 15-20 kn. Poor Clarke threw up. We made it to Southport around 3 pm. Our original plan was to keep going across Frying Pan Shoals to Beaufort, instead of going inside and hopping out at Marlesboro Inlet. But the waves were such that we didn't want to go across the 8ft shoals and it would have been an extra 10 miles to go around them, so we hopped in the waterway.


We were doing fine until Snows Cut. Then it got real bad real quick. We were exiting the shipping channel in Cape Fear River when we felt something hit out hull and slide back to the prop. We got the jib back out and started sailing excruciatingly slowly up the cut. Mom called Tow Boat US to see if they could tow us to a better spot. Soon we hit current and were forced to anchor so we didn't drift into the marshes close on each side of us. Then we tried to see what was wrong. First we opened one of the latches to the engine so we could see the shaft. We confirmed that the propeller was turning, it just didn't sound nice. We thought we'd hit a log, but we never saw it pop up after it first hit us. Then we saw something sticking out from under us on our starboard side. It was a tree! We got a boat hook and gently pulled it out. It was absolutely massive. 20ft long with a crab trap caught in it! We checked propulsion and it seemed to be fine. So we called Tow Boat US back saying we didn't need the help anymore before pulling anchor keeping on keeping up the ICW.


We hopped out at Marlesboro Inlet without a problem, and Clarke and I took the watch. Around 10 pm Clarke threw up. He seemed fine after that, but an hour later he was sent right back over the rail, this time for a lot longer. I went to get dad. He had Clarke go to bed after eating a cup of cherrios. Clarke was fine the rest of the night. I stayed up with mom until midnight.