October 22, 2007 Monday Offshore passage to Hilton Head, SC

We arrive at our waypoint just off the inlet to Charleston, South Carolina at 4:30AM. We are almost six hours ahead of schedule. It is dark of course and we need daylight to see our way into the anchorage and to select a good place to drop the hook. So rather than wait around for daylight we decide to keep travelling to Hilton Head. Our friends Cindy and John, on the sailboat Tashmoo, are at a marina there. This decision will add 60 more miles on to this passage. What the heck, all we have is time, so we decide to continue on. We arrive at the inlet in the early afternoon. It will take us another 1-� hours to get to the marina from here. Upon entering the inlet Kelly calls Cindy and John to tell them we are almost there. They let us know the Red Sox won the American League last night. There was a lot of screaming on our boat upon hearing the announcement. Cindy and John were off exploring the area and said they would see us at the marina.

The Hilton Head Marina and RV Park, our home for the next couple weeks, was quite a few miles from the inlet. The route leading to the marina led us through a winding marsh channel through a wilderness of marsh and tree landscapes. Occasionally a large shorefront home with a long peer reaching out to the deep water where they could tie up their yacht, could be seen. All sorts of seabirds are flying around or fishing in the shallow water near the banks. Fish are also frequently breaking the surface of the water. I was rather startled at one point when a brown disc shaped object seemed to be noisily skipping across the water towards our boat. I couldn't identify what it was, but later I learned from Buddy, a local sailor we met at the marina, that it was probably a ray that was being chased by some other fish. As if this wasn't the perfect picture of nature already, dolphins start to appear everywhere. The girls and Deb run up to the bow to watch 4 dolphins play in our bow wake. It almost seems like they are giving us an escort to the marina. They stay with us for about ten minutes. It was really exciting to see them. We all enjoyed their show.

We tie up at the gas dock and meet Neil, the dockhand. He is very nice and tells us that everyone at the marine enjoys Cindy and John's company. We all walked up to the office and we meet the owner John. They decide which slip we will go in and Neil walks us down to show us where it is. As we are walking down to the docks Cindy and John show up. It's great to see familiar faces! Many hugs are exchanged. It is really neat to be with your best friends fulfilling the same dream you are. We take a look at the slip, then John and I leave to get the boat and bring it into the slip. The girls and Deb stay and talk with Cindy. Once the boat is secure we had some bratwurst that Cindy and John had left over from a fishing event they worked at the night before. It was then shower time and a walk around the marina/RV resort. Both the marina and RV Park are nice. In the RV Park, the people landscape their lots tastefully. There is a small playground and the girls enjoyed playing on it. We head back to our boat and talk for a while before we call it a night.