The Backdoor/ Land of my people!

Godspeed motored out of Masonboro about 8:00am Monday morning into an overcast and dreary sky. We stopped at Carolina Beach for fuel and were pleasantly surprised to see Godspeed had only sipped 12 gallons of diesel in 24 hours of motoring. It was the next 2 days when we really began to appreciate our vessel, she is very nimble at the helm and has long swift legs that steadily will out distance most other vessels which is a great advantage when you arrive at an anchorage way ahead of the pack and have a place to send Bruce down for the night. Several times we have made timed bridge openings, slipped through when many others are far behind and have to wait for the next window as we head to the next anchorage early. Godspeed is the right name!
After the fuel stop, we found ourselves in a wide sound area which ia a major shipping lane. A dredge had all but a few feet of the channel blocked and a shoal on the other side. The good thing was there was a strong current and a 15 to 20 Knot wind sucking us into the shoal, It was very exiting for a few minutes as I held Godspeed at a 45 degree angle to the channel crabbed along and made only forward progress. We made it through ok and beside the big boats we went. After a 60 mile run we sent Bruce down and we stayed the night at Calabash, just a few feet inside South Carolina near the Little river Inlet. When we arrived, there was one nice spot left amongst 5 other cruisers. The sky cleared overnight and at dawn we were the first out and headed for the dreaded "Rock Cut".
'Rock Cut" is about 20 or so miles rated as the worst on the ICW. It is a man made cut through rock that is high walled with submerged trees, floating trees, rock ledges and much shoaling. Lorrie read all this to me as I was gleaming about our boat's speed. Suddenly I wanted to be in the back, are the other cruisers playing us like a fiddle or what? Anyway we picked our way through and were glad to see that several bridges we encountered opened on radio request which was great due to the stiff current pulling us into them.
The next section was a Cypress swamp which for the most part had deep black water which gave Godspeed a dark mustache for a while. we began to see palmetto plants and I realized as we passed the mouth of the Pee Dee river that this is where the "Barefoot clan" is from, my mother's people. Later we saw the Barefoot marina, several other business named Barefoot and even made the Barefoot Brige open. With another 60 mile leg behind us Godspeed motored into the Seaport of Georgetown SC at about 3:00pm. Bruce took a swim and I hoisted the dingy over the side and rowed the 100 feet to the shrimp docks. A few feet further and we docked at the town "dingy dock". It is really neat showing up at a new place, not by plane train or automoblie, but walking through the "Back Door". Banana sized shrimp still "wigglin" came to the galley for dinner!