Long Weekend at Hilton Head and Moving North

 We arrived at Hilton Head on May 26th after our overnight sail from St. Augustine. As we approached Hilton Head, I called Skull Creek Marina to see if they had space available for us for two nights. When they confirmed our spot, I was excited to be on a dock for the first time since mid December. 

We had many reasons to get in a marina. We had friends we wanted to see and doing that from a marina is much easier. The other reasons were mainly some much needed TLC for SHIFT. We were (OK Kim was) really looking forward to access to an unlimited supply of water. Most people take that for granted, but if you live on a boat that stays at anchor or on a mooring ball, water is a real luxury. My dear wife was really looking forward to giving SHIFT a good bath. We had many other projects that we wanted to complete also. 

We had an excellent night of sleep after our long sail until we were awoken by howling winds at 6am. I got out of bed to see some gusts over 30 knots, but it died down quickly and I returned to bed. I was a bit surprised to find out later that some other boaters out on the end of the T docks saw gusts approaching 50 knots. The storm passed quickly and I did not see any damage. The boat got a good rinse, but that was just the beginning of it's spa day. 

Kim got out the scrub brushes and got right into scrubbing the boat down from bowsprit to stern. I worked on other projects including engine maintenance and refueling. The days got hot and humid, so we opened the through hull for the air conditioner and ran it for the first time in over 6 months. We slept great in the cool dry air. 

The next project was to reapply Teak Guard to our teak wood work. We have been using this product for a couple of years and it does need to be reapplied every 6 months or so. It had been close to 8 months and it showed. Kim did most of the work and it turned out great. 

I wish I had a before and this after picture. You could see the great improvement. 

We do have a lot of teak on this boat. The entire project takes about 10 man hours to complete

We asked the marina if they had room for us over the long Memorial Day weekend. They said they had space. The holiday weekends are crazy on the water. We decided to stay put and maybe do some sight seeing on Hilton Head. 

I had received a note from a close friend that they were in St. Augustine and were heading back to their home in South Carolina. I asked if they could make time to swing by Hilton Head and were delighted when they said they could. That gave us another reason to stay. 

My good friend and former boss from my working days, Tony and his awesome wife Debbie. It was so great to see you both. And, Thanks for Lunch! Notice a pattern here...

One of the best parts of traveling is making new friends and catching up with people that we haven't seen in years. It was so great to have both Mark, Tony and Debbie make time to see us. 

We tried to find a way to get around Hilton Head to see some sites and go to the beach. They have a trolly system, but it did not go to the area of the island that we were in. We would have had to take an Uber or walk about 5 miles. Kim was motivated to work on the boat and really was fine with staying in the marina. 

I saw a couple of things that were within walking distance, so I decided to take a long walk. First up was a Civil War Fort called Fort Mitchell. It is just some old earth works that was done to emplace some cannon to defend the island and put fire on Skull Creek if the confederates wanted to move war ships or goods to the north. Did you know that the Union took Hilton Head Island in 1862 and held it for the rest of the war. This allowed them to limit much of the goods coming into Savannah. 

Not much to see here except some old cannon, but plenty to read on the many interpretive signs. 

Some of the earth works including a moat.

I walked on from there to see a large oak tree. That turned out to be less than impressive, but I enjoyed the much needed walk.

I saw this little guy as I walked along a golf course

That is the big Oak tree. It is big, but not that big. 

The tides at Hilton Head rise and fall over 7 feet. You had to time your trip to the bathhouse or you had to climb a very steep ramp up from the dock.

This shot is at low tide. The water will be up to the trees on the right at high tide. 

Kim decided it was time to get her sewing machine out and try to fix the dodger. Once she got started, she fixed the sail cover also. She did a great job and now the boat is looking great.

The patch job looked great. She used some sail tape underneath the outer patch. 

Here is the repair from on top. 

We will need to replace all of our canvas in the not too distant future, but this job should buy us some more time. We have a number of other expensive projects that we need to do this next year. Boat maintenance is never ending. 

After spending 5 days in Hilton Head, we were ready to get moving. Our next objective was Georgetown, SC. There is a very protected harbor there and is also a bit more inland. We had been watching a hurricane hit Mexico and then what was left move into the gulf of Mexico. We were seeing some models show it forming into a tropical storm and then crossing Florida and then moving up the east coast. We had three days of travel along the ICW to get to Georgetown. 

Our first day (May 31) was a planned to be a short one. We had calm winds and fair skies.

Nice start to the trip.

That changed later in the day, when a thunderstorm formed behind us. The good news is that it never caught us.

We arrived at our anchorage and it did not look good, we also had a strong current behind us, so we continued on for anther 15 miles to a wide spot in the Edisto River at a place called Laurel Hill. It was a beautiful anchorage that we had all to ourselves. I was watching my AIS and saw two boats pull into an anchorage just across from us. One was our neighbor at Hilton Head and the other was our neighbor from Marathon. That is amazing, but seems to be normal in this lifestyle. 

Cool old home at the Laurel Hill anchorage

Wide open view forward

The next day we were up early and underway at sunrise. We had a big day. We were going to travel through Charleston, SC. We tried to find a marina there, but nothing was available. I did not want to anchor with he possibility of a storm coming, so we just cruised right through. This area of the ICW is a series of cuts that jump from one river to another. The currents are difficult to follow because you will be going down river on one section and then jump over to another river flowing with the tide in a different direction. As it turned out, we did well and made good time with the current with us most of the day. Just before you get to Charleston there is Elliot cut. It has very strong currents and a bridge that we have to open in the middle. We approached with about 3 knots of current with us pushing us into the bridge. We had to wait about 20 minutes for the next opening. I had to make circles in a tight space to burn time. Just as we were waiting "Speranza" showed up. They were moored right next to us in Marathon. We said hi to them, but never really met them. We waived and went through the bridge just after them. We followed them all the way through Charleston harbor and then opened another bridge together on the far side. It was only when we turned off for our anchorage that we left them. 

Views of Charleston as we exited Elliot cut

The Bridge across the harbor in Charleston, SC

Fort Sumter in the distance

 We cruised along the low country and then hit an area that was very congested called Palm Island. Lots of boats and docks along both sides of the waterway. We were happy to see in jut a few miles we were back to the quiet of the estuaries of the low country. We turned off into Whiteside Creek. It is a beautiful place. I was watching the radar and the sky when this monster showed up:

It finally came over us and gave us a nice deck wash, but thankfully no strong wind or lightning.

The rest of the evening was quiet and we had a nice night. 

We got up early the next morning and got moving. It was a nice ride along the SC low country. We went in and out of some pine trees along the coast. This was a big day for me. I was looking forward to getting to Buck Hall, SC. 

This is a picture of life in this area. You have a house up in the pine trees and a very long dock out to a boat house. The tides are still pretty significant, so you need the long dock to get the boat to the water at low tide. 

Buck Hall, SC is a place that has special significance for me. We visited this part of SC back in 2017. We had been traveling in the RV for over 4 years and I was not sure how much longer I wanted to do it. We stopped at this little campground along the ICW. I was sitting on the dock fishing when I saw a sailboat come motoring by. I looked at the transom of the boat and it said it was from some town in Maine. That really intrigued me. Could you really travel that far on a boat? That stated me researching and study the concept that led us to this point. It all started right here:

That is the Buck Hall Campground

That is the dock I was fishing off of on that fateful day. 

Later that day, we made it to Georgetown, SC. We stopped and got fuel, filled up with water and emptied our waste tank. We got the anchor down and set up to stay a while.

This is a shot of the waterfront of Georgetown, SC from our anchorage. 

This looks like a very nice place, but the main thing on my mind was what was going on with that storm down in the Gulf of Mexico. In my next entry, I will write about our time in Georgetown and the approaching storm.