Fun in the Sun at Hilton Head Island

There are plenty of things to do while at Hilton Head Island, and Shelter Cove Marina is a good place to be to take advantage of them.  Some events take place right at the marina, such as the Beer Fest that we attended last Saturday.

Shelter Cove is part of the Palmetto Dunes Plantation, which boasts a lovely beach. It's an easy bicycle ride from the marina, or you can take advantage of the free shuttle, the Palmetto Dunes Buggy, to take you there.

We also enjoyed having lunch at Dunes House after a refreshing dip in the ocean.

Or, if you'd rather swim in fresh water, the pool is nice.  It seems to be one of the best kept secrets that it even exists, so you may have it to yourselves, as we did.

In the mornings, we enjoy taking our coffee for a walk around the marina perimeter. But the view is nice from our front deck as well, so one morning we were lazy.

Of course, then we felt guilty for not getting our usual exercise, so we made up for it by washing down the boat, which can be another way to cool off on a hot September afternoon.

We decided to try our hand at catching crabs, which are plentiful here, with mixed results.  On our first try, we caught one crab without claws (which we released to swim another day), one shrimp (which escaped through the wires of the trap), and one flounder!  That was a surprise, but since it was too small to keep, we released it as well.

Finally, we caught a keeper and decided to cook it and eat it. Although it looked fierce as we took it out of the trap, we discovered after cooking it that the shell was actually soft, so it must have shed recently and hadn't hardened up much yet.

Although just one crab doesn't provide much meat, it made a tasty snack.



So, that's a sampling of what we've been doing at Shelter Cove for the last ten days since our arrival. The weather has been sunny and hot during the day with pleasantly cool early mornings and evenings.  The forecast is for rain to come this week, which the area sorely needs.

Journey to Hilton Head Island

As promised, by Tuesday morning, Sept. 14th, the wind speed had diminished to a slight breeze, making it a perfect day to depart from Charleston Harbor.  We awoke before sunrise and prepared to leave at dead low tide when the current would be nill, with the plan to cruise through some notorious trouble spots along our route on a rising tide later in the day. Surprisingly, the air temperature was almost chilly as we headed out of the City Marina and turned south on the ICW. Hopefully, this means that the worst of the summer heat is now behind us.

Turning around for a final look before the Charleston cityscape was out of sight, we were rewarded with a view of the sun just peaking out over the building tops to bid us farewell and smooth cruising. The tide was just beginning to turn in our favor, and as we cruised through Elliott Cut toward the Stono River, we could feel a gentle push of the incoming tidal current easing us through what can be a challenging passage.

We were amazed at the fact that we had the waterway almost totally to ourselves all day, not passing (or being passed by) a single other cruising vessel all the way from Charleston to Beaufort.  Except for a few locals out fishing in small power boats, we only encountered a couple of barges, which we gladly granted right of way.

After eight hours of very pleasant cruising, we arrived at the Beaufort Downtown Marina, calling ahead to make sure they had dock space for us overnight. This lovely historic town is a favorite of ours, a place we have visited many times before.  The marina is located adjacent to a lovely waterfront park, which is also lined with restaurants, making for an enjoyable stopover for mariners. Unfortunately, however, some of these restaurants are going through tough times.  In fact, one of our favorites, Kathleen's, has recently closed.

After noticing that the price noted on the diesel pump at the fuel dock was reasonable as compared with other marinas we had checked out, we decided to top off the tanks before leaving the next morning. It wasn't until we were halfway through the process that the dock attendant told us that they would be adding 7% sales tax to the price on the pump.  Our previous experience has been that the price on the pump is the price that you pay. Next time, we'll ask before pumping! Oh, well, live and learn.

As we departed and cruised down the Beaufort River toward Port Royal Sound on Wednesday morning, we carefully passed under the 65 ft. fixed bridge immediately south of Port Royal Landing Marina, getting a closeup view of repair work underway.

Again we were experiencing only 5 kt. maximum winds, so crossing Port Royal Sound, which can be troublesome at times, was a breeze (pardon the pun).  Boat traffic was light again as well, but we did pass a working shrimper in the sound.

After crossing Port Royal Sound, we continued on to Hilton Head Island, transiting through Skull Creek, down Calibogue Sound, and up Broad Creek to Shelter Cove Marina, where we will be staying for the next month. We called on the VHF radio as we approached the marina, and they promised to have a dock hand waiting at our slip to catch lines.  When we got there, however, there was no one in sight, so we eased our way in, making good use of the bow and stern thrusters which we had installed last year.  After securing the lines without assistance from marina staff, the dock hand arrived.  No tip for him!

Shelter Cove Marina, which has the atmosphere and architecture of a Mediterranean waterfront village, is also part of the Palmetto Dunes plantation at Hilton Head Island. Although most of the boats here tend to be the size of ours or smaller, the marina also receives visits from mega yachts like the 128 ft. vessel below.

So, this is our home for the next month, until we head south again in mid-October.

The Adventure Begins...

As our target departure date of September 13th rapidly approached, we stocked up on provisions, topped off the fresh water tank, hauled the bicycles onboard and secured them to the rails. We had already taken care of so called routine maintenance on the twin Ford Leman engines (not without the typical stresses associated with that endeavor) as well as the generator, plus a last minute replacement of our aging electric Princess range which decided to stop working (not for the first time), and installation of satellite TV.

Our home port for the last two years had been Charleston, SC, and although we were eager to be on our way, it was not without feelings of nostalgia that we anxiously contemplated our departure heading south down the ICW toward Hilton Head Island, the first of many destinations on our planned route. We awoke on Monday morning, Sept. 13th, to 10-15 knot winds and the first major decision of our trip --- do we head out today or put off our departure until tomorrow when the forcast is for 5 knot winds? That was really a no brainer, especially with the prospect of having breakfast at our favorite French cafe if we delayed just one more day! Plus, this gave us a chance to get our blog started.

Our intention is to slowly make our way south for the fall and winter, first to Hilton Head, then to Jekyll Island, GA, arriving at Vero Beach, FL in late November (after the hurricane season ends!), then on to south Florida and the Bahamas, until early spring when we plan to turn around and head north again. By the time we arrive back at Charleston, our six month shakedown cruise will be over, and we can decide whether the cruising life is indeed our cup of tea (or not). If so, we will continue north embarking on the Great Loop Cruise, a circumnavigation of the eastern USA. The entire Loop should take us approximately one year.

Can't wait until tomorrow!