We finally got underway at 8:00 AM on Mother's Day. It was a beautiful day and we had a pleasant 4 1/2 hour ride to Southport's Harbor Village Marina. Here are some pictures taken as we approached the Sunset beach Bridge, and the new Sunset Beach Park. This new bridge replaces the last pontoon bridge on the Inland Waterway

 

 

 



We saw several dolphins in the area of Shallotte Inlet, and several more further up the Waterway. I'd take a picture, but all you would see are ripples in the water because the camera (or cameraman) can't work that fast. 

 

I was concerned about going through the section of the Inland Waterway by Lockwood Folly because of severe shoaling; consequently we planned our trip to go through at high tide. When Tony Mantini and I took the boat down from the St Lawrence River in 2015, we saw several boats go aground in this area. I'm glad that it was high tide when we went through on Sunday because we ran into a tug towing about 300 yards of dredging pipe just as we went through . I wanted to favor the red buoy, but the tow prevented us from doing that, however we had about 17 ft of water. This area must have been dredged well by the Corp of Army Engineers. This picture shows the towing tug and an assisting tug pushing the pipe from side to side.