We left Walburg Creek at 6:45 this morning with the sun rising behind St. Catherine’s Island. At the left is a photo of the wind speed as we entered the channel out to the Atlantic Ocean. We had following seas with the wind speed eventually getting up to about 6 kts. It was a very comfortable sail all day until just as we entered the inlet for Hilton Head Island. Then the generator started turning off again. This is a busy commercial channel, so it was bad timing to lose power as we were in it. While we can use the electric motor without the genset on, it does use up our batteries so we rarely use it. Mark thinks the genset problem must be something to do with a sensor as it is worse when we are bouncing around a bit. Also, when we run it while anchored to charge the batteries and use the air conditioner, it works fine.
We have been to Hilton Head on the boat several times. Upon exiting the inlet, there are two channels. One takes you to Savannah and the other goes to Hilton Head Island. As you approach Hilton Head, the lighthouse at Harbour Town Marina is the first thing you see, after the beaches. We have never stayed there but friends Hal and Cheryl (
Mas Bueno) went to that marina last year and were given a bottle of wine as they checked in. We continued on to Broad Creek, got fuel at the Palmetto Marina, and anchored nearby. Last summer on our way north we spent several days here and had a great time riding our bikes on the many miles of bike trails. It is easy to get around as the bike trails take you all over the island.
When we dropped our anchor in Broad Creek (photo left), it was 93 degrees outside - too hot to ride bikes. This is a small anchorage and most of the boats are owned by locals. There is an entrance to Broad Creek from the ICW but at low tide it is only 4 ft deep, so most boats on the ICW don’t come here. For us, it was a two hour sail after entering the inlet to reach this anchorage. Unfortunately, this is a channel for tour boats and speed boats. Most don’t observe the “No Wake” zone. There is a local “No Wake Enforcer” who chastises all speeding boats from his VHF radio as they pass him. We’ve heard him before but have never figured out where he is. It could be near us as none of the small boats seem to slow down. In the photo to the left, one cuts in front of us and speeds through the anchorage.
Another interesting view is in the middle of our anchorage field. This guy has built some type of a floating ice cream store. We aren’t sure if people come to him or if he takes it somewhere to sell his products. It looks like something you would see at a carnival.
We will be leaving here very early tomorrow morning, probably before sunrise, and should be in Charleston tomorrow evening. Last year it took us 13 hours to get there from Hilton Head, but we had excellent wind and averaged 7 kts. We have been motorsailing at an average of 6.5 kts for most of this trip, even with the single digit wind speeds and following seas. The distance from this anchorage to the Maritime Center in Charleston is 92 miles, including the 12 miles we go out and the 12 miles we go back in when we get there . Since we’ve been to the Maritime Center before, we know that it is easy to enter. We already know our slip so we would feel OK arriving in the dark, even though the channel is commercial. Now that we are in South Carolina we have met the “hurricane zone” requirements of our boat insurance.
In May we were in Spanish Wells and met Rita, the Spanish Wells Manatee. She was very pregnant at the time and we heard that she had her baby this week. Below are two photos which are posted on Rita’s Facebook page. Rita has been fed lots of vegetables by visitors and the people who live in Spanish Wells, but the baby needs to nurse for about a year and doesn’t eat solid foods. There is concern that if Rita abandons her baby, the calf will not survive. A vet from the Atlantis Aquarium has been taking care of Rita during her pregnancy and is now advising the people in Spanish Wells what to do to keep her and the baby safe.
