Update 11/09/09 - Hilton Head

We arrived back at Sun Cat just before Labor Day and spent the weekend cleaning the boat and traveling to the beach and the pool. It was great to be back in nice warm weather although the last 2 weeks in Maine and the week in upstate New York were also warm and we wore shorts most of the time there as well.

Shelter Cove Marina Hilton Head

As I reported in the previous update, the boat was in good shape when we returned but had not been cleaned all summer so we spent a number of days cleaning and polishing with particular attention to the plastic windows that surround the bridge and sundeck. We also cleaned the dinghy and added a new coat of UV protection as well as had the divers clean the bottom and running gear. Our plan was generally to work in the morning and play in the afternoon and evening. It worked for the most part!

We traveled to Beaufort twice the first week. We had a nice lunch there with Ken and Sharon Vogel, a couple we had met at Hilton Head 2 years ago. We also made a trip to get a new set of tires on the truck as one had gone flat and one was bad. We also had a nice dinner with my niece Kelly and her husband Steve at their house in Blufton.

After a week or so, we had lots of company. Ron and Brenda came for another visit as well as my sister Sue and her husband John, her son David and his family and her daugher Kelly and Steve. Everyone stayed at Kelly and Steve’s in Blufton and we had a good time traveling with them around Hilton Head and the area. One day we took the Sun Cat and went over to Daufuskie Island for lunch, ducking rain showers the whole time. We also visited the Harbortown lighthouse and south beach as well as the nature preserve in Sea Pines. Steve had grown up in the area and served as a guide. Ron & Brenda took us kayaking in the lagoons of Palmetto Dunes one morning and we spent a day with them playing tourists in Savannah. The picture to the right is the view from Harbortown lighthouse.

Palmetto Bluff, SC

Soon after ever they left, fellow cruisers Bob & Sharon on Catch Me If U Can arrived and we spent much of the rest of the time there showing them around Hilton Head, working on our boat, going to the beach and pool and partying with them. Among other adventures, we went to a classic car drive in, took a boat ride to Buffalo’s restaurant at Palmetto Bluff, attended a performance of Cabaret and played many games of Sequence. We also enjoyed many dinners together with Sharon preparing several wonderful meals and Jean introducing them to a Low Country Boil.The picture to the left is the restaurant at Palmetto Bluff

Before we left Hilton Head, we traveled to Joe Wheeler State Park in Rogersville, Alabama, which is on the Tennessee River. There we attended a Rendevous of the American Great Loop Cruisers Association where I did a presentation on traveling from Key West to Jacksonville. It was fun to meet the latest group of Loopers and tour some fo their boats. We actually got to see a larger Symbol of the same vintage. The picture below is the view from our room at Wheeler.

The river at Joe Wheeler State Park Alabama

The time had come to leave Hilton Head. We returned the truck to Chuck and Claria. We’d used it so much and really enjoyed it. The F-150 is definitely a good vehicle! It was sad to leave our friends and a place we like but we wanted to do a tour of the St John River in Florida before flying to Maine for the holidays so we had to go. Our next update will cover that adventure.