Southbound ’19 – Travel Day 17: A Journey’s Brilliant End In Hilton Head

 

Conditions: Sunny and 57° to start, 62° to finish.  Winds NNE 7kts, waters calm to light chop in the sound.

Distance traveled: 27 statute miles 

Time underway: 2 hours 55 minutes

Average Speed: 9 kts

Max Speed: 14 kts

Fuel used: 24 gallons

 

 

 

With only 27 miles of travel ahead of us and a desire to arrive at Hilton Head on a higher incoming tide, we had a leisurely morning at Port Royal Landing Marina before shoving off the docks just before 10:30am (always good to have a little extra time to pump out the holding tank!).  Despite our many delays in getting to Beaufort, Captain Miss Michele was able to work it out to take the day to run with us down to Hilton Head as guest crew aboard OLOH.

It was a beautiful day to be on the water, a perfect way to bring our 2019 cruising to a close.  Once the temperatures warmed we made our way to the bridge for the last half of our trip.  On the advice of our friends, the Three B’s Crew who had just passed through, and after consulting with Captain Michele and our charts, we were able to take advantage of the high tide to run a shortcut from Calibogue Sound to Broad Creek which is safe to transit at higher tides.  It was easy as could be and saved us several miles and quite a bit of time.

A very friendly voice immediately returned our hail on the VHF as we approached Shelter Cove Marina.  Having studied the slip map and aerial view of the marina, we were very familiar with where our berth was… all the way through the marina at the very end.  The way our slip is set up, we wanted to go past it and spin OLOH around so we could be oriented in a favorable way.  It was pretty tight getting through the back part of the marina but it’s nice and protected from the wind in their basin (not that much was blowing) and we took it nice and slow…

You’ve got to check out this one minute clip of our arrival.  Very dramatic ?…

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Dockhand Brad made us feel immediately welcome and we very quickly knew we had made the right decision to settle in here for a spell.  It may feel different during the high season, but at least at this moment, there is a very relaxed feel to where we are despite it being a resort area with lots of condos, shops, and restaurants.  It is immaculately kept and the marina staff couldn’t be more friendly or accommodating.  We feel a bit spoiled essentially having our own dock with the Miss Norma Crew right in front of us, close enough to the action but private enough to feel very comfortable.

Miss Michele’s husband Gene was good enough to drive down from Beaufort to pick her up, but not before we enjoyed a terrific happy hour at Scott’s Fish Market, a great spot just a clam’s throw from OLOH.  Yeah, we’re gonna like it here.

A wrap-up report on our run from the Chesapeake to Hilton Head will be coming soon as well as our thoughts on our upcoming Florida cruising, but for now we are settling in for the holidays and enjoying life aboard at the docks.  It’s great to be out cruising and it’s also great to be safely tied.  We love it all.  Thanks for coming along!

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