Wednesday, April 7, 2021.
Weather: Temp: 85/52, Humidity: 76/20%, Top Wind: S11 mph, Precip: None, Miles Traveled: 25
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Today would be a short travel day, but we wanted to have some tide in our favor for a few spots. We were up just after 6:00, and off the dock well before sunrise. It was a nice calm morning, with no dew whatsoever to deal with, which was really nice! We had shorts on, and long sleeves shirts – the wind was a little bit chilly at 60 degrees, but not terrible. The crescent moon was still up with a few of its favorite stars.
This is Bahia Bleu. The center waterway is where small boats back in to be lifted and put into the big storage building behind. It could be a bit sporty getting backed in there when the current and wind are moving!
Pre-sunset over the savannah near Savannah.
And then looked who popped onto the scene! It’s the south-bound cruise ship! Fortunately we had a bit of a wide spot that we could move over to the side and let them slide by.
We could see in all the windows – they weren’t very far away!
The sunshine came up to start a new beautiful day for us.
As we crossed the Savannah River, we moved out of Georgia and into South Carolina.
As we looked up the Savannah River – there was the north-bound cruise ship! Oh boy – we hoped it wouldn’t catch us before Hilton Head!
We left the dock at about 6:45, and by 9:00 we were passing the lighthouse at Harbour Town on Hilton Head. This is a popular place for boaters to stop since it is right on the ICW, but it is quite a ways out of “town” where all the Hilton Head happenins are.
The red line shows the route, and Harbour Town is circled in red. However, we had other plans! Originally my thought was to stay at Shelter Cove (the purple circle) for a night so that we could explore Hilton Head and be close to town. I had not made reservations yet since we didn’t know exactly when we were going to be there.
About a week ago, we got an e-mail from Louise & Dick, who we met in 2018 while waiting out some bad weather in River Dunes North Carolina. They live in Hilton Head at Wexford Plantation, which has a marina. They are the Harbor Hosts for the AGLCA for that area, and they invited us to come stay as their guests for two nights – for free! WHAT?! Wow- what a gift and blessing! Of course we said YES!! So the green line shows where we are at Wexford.
We traveled up Broad Creek and then turned into the marina channel. This is the channel, and we were in awe of the beautiful homes.
We actually went through a lock to be lifted up into their harbor.
The lock/harbor master was very nice, and directed us just around the corner to the guest dock. Just around the end, pull in bow first, starboard tie.
And here is the view from the back of our boat.
What a beautiful place! Not only is there a marina and clubhouse, but an 18-hole golf course. (If we were golfers, we were offered two rounds of golf for half price.) We also learned that there is going to be a PGA tournament on Hilton Head starting next week – so our timing was good for being here before everything gets super busy!
We have full use of the clubhouse and all amenities. Unfortunately, there was a construction mishap that blew out the power to the pool and washrooms, so they are unavailable. We took a walk over there to scope it out. Here’s looking back at Island Girl.
There are actually two pools here, and a huge pool deck. How nice!!! We didn’t go into the clubhouse; it had a sign that “proper attire required”, which we weren’t sure what that was. I had on a tank top, and Kenny didn’t have a collar on his shirt. I suppose we should ask about the rules if we want to go inside.
We walked past a place that looked like maybe a croquet field?
Dick came by to welcome us and brought us some maps, including all the bike trails on Hilton Head Island. Sweet! We got our bikes down and charged the batteries. I took mine for a spin out to the front gate where there is a mailbox, and took a couple of pictures along the way. There are some enormous homes here! And Dick said that some of them are just ‘winter homes’! 😳
I couldn’t even get all of this one in with a panoramic shot!
Here was our 25 mile route today, and the cruise ship never quite caught up with us. Whew!
Dick and Louise invited us to dinner at their home. It was beautiful, and we had such a nice visit with them. They recently bought a home in England that they rent out for vacationers when they aren’t using it, so we really enjoyed hearing about England. They have done several canal boat trips over there, which just sound so fun! In the meantime, they are still working on completing their Loop here in the U.S. They do about three months at a time, and then leave the boat in storage somewhere, and pick up where they left off the next year. This summer, they’ll pick up their boat in North Lake Michigan and circumnavigate the whole lake. Next year they plan to do all of the rivers – Upper Mississippi, Ohio up to Pittsburgh, and so on. They said they may actually get their boat back here in another three years. Just a great example of how everybody can do the Loop in their own way!
We so much appreciate their generosity in having us stay here. It is a beautiful location. Tomorrow we’ll get saddle sores by riding our bikes all around the island. The weather is supposed to be really nice – highs in the upper 70’s, humidity in the 40% range. 👍😁