Barefoot Landing - at a face dock

Coming into Barefoot Landing Marina

Finally the weather is turning warmer down here. We wanted to take advantage of the ebb tide but to do so we had to get up early with a 7:00 am start! It was barely daylight but there was enough light to get started. I took Hoolie in for his morning relief in the dark but by the time I got back to the boat it was light.

Turtle heaven

We got off the mooring close to 7:00 am and headed down the Cape Fear river (what a name!) With an ebb tide and less than 10 kts of wind, it was very tame, nothing like it would have been with 15 to 25 kt winds against the tide! We played tag with the ferry, he seemed to want the inside route, to our starboard instead of a port to port pass, strange.

Hummm, seems to be getting intimate  

Eventually we returned to the ICW but had two very shallow spots to contend with. Luckily we had a rising tide and although both spots had very strong currents, we were able to negotiate them successfully without incident. Both shallows were by inlets where the water was pouring in from a rising tide, almost whitewater speed, pushing the boat all over the place.

Barefoot Landing is under new ownership - their first act was to put flowers everywhere

After passing though the inlets, it was "phew", time to relax and run the gauntlets that is the Rock Pile. It's a narrow section of the ICW where they would have run over budget if the width was maintained to spec so instead of going over budget, they made the cut narrower (what an idea, staying within budget!!) That leaves ledges on either side ready to catch the unwary if you stray out of the narrow channel. We didn't and made it okay.

We're now at Barefoot Landing Marina, one of our favorites since there's lots to do with shopping and restaurants aplenty. I'm sure Ann will spend most of Saturday looking through the shops. We plan on staying until Monday morning when we take off for Georgetown and points south. It's nice to be in warm weather again!