The esteemed Hilton Head was unfortunately a bit of a disappointment. While we knew in advance the dockage rates were high (they even add on a “resort fee”), we were looking forward to a little treat. Unfortunately it was more of a trick, we didn’t know the marina was in the middle of major construction project, building a new restaurant complex. So from 7 AM to 7 PM, we endured workers banging, cutting, hammering, along with the constant “beep, beep, beep” of all of their equipment. Oh, wait, we couldn’t always hear them, as landscapers roamed all day leaf blowing every walk, lawn & parking lot all around us. Doesn’t this “eco-friendly” “resort” know that each commercial gas-powered leaf blower emits nearly 300 times the amount of air pollutants as a pickup truck?  And their 100+ decibel level is similar to a jet airplane taking off!?  Yikes!

Oh, wait, I’ll get away from the noisy marina & go for a bike ride on their miles of “leisure trails”. Well, at least in this portion of Hilton Head, the glorified sidewalk was crowded, as well as stop & go with driveways crossing, along with other obstacles every 100’ or so. Then near restaurants & parking lots, the “leisure trail” would cross the road or divert around. I apparently zigged when the “leisure trail” zagged & I was pulled over by a security officer (flashing lights & all) for … biking on the edge of the road!  Horror!!

While passing thru Savannah, we enjoyed a great dinner out with Gene, a fellow PDQ cruiser.  He brought along some petrified shark teeth he has found diving.  This one is around 3 million years ago from a Megalodon, which was likely around 40′ long.  Technically, they are fossils.  Shark teeth become fossils through a process called permineralization which takes tens of thousands of years.  The lost teeth sink to the bottom of the ocean & become buried by sediment.  Eventually mineral-bearing water crystallizes within pores in the tooth & form a fossil.  Besides the massive size, you can tell it is from a Megalodon from the slight serrations on the edges, as if something this size needed extra flesh cutting ability!

These were the multiple decks (now sideways) which had been full of cars.  The jagged metal is from cutting with the chain.

This cross-section of the ship is supported on the barge with a custom support to keep it from rolling off.  To reduce weight & pollution, the 4,200 cars had to be removed first.

This is the last section of the overturned cargo ship Golden Ray, which capsized off St. Simons Island, Georgia on September 9, 2019.  This has been the largest marine salvage operation in U.S. history, as this RORO (roll-on/roll-off) ship was 656 long, filled with 4,200 cars.  Although controversial & with lots of challenges, the salvage operation included “sawing” the ship into 8 pieces, using a custom rig with only heavy chain sawing back & forth.

We’ve been taking pictures every trip past, as it is only 1/4 mile from the ICW channel.  We thought we were going to miss seeing this last piece, as the news said it was removed & barged away just 2 days before. Surprise, surprise, entering the channel into Brunswick Landing Marina, there it was!  Still on it’s barge, as they’re using this area as a staging area before cutting into smaller pieces for salvage.

After waiting a couple of days in Brunswick for a storm system to go by (the same one that flooded & washed-out parts of northern California earlier in the week), we’ll stop at Jekyll Island – a smaller, less busy & much, much nicer version of Hilton Head for some quiet & un-accosted bike riding!

No, we didn’t get stuck in place.  The towns of Beaufort in both North & South Carolina are spelled the same, while pronounced differently.  Beaufort, North Carolina is pronounced BOH-fert, while Beaufort, South Carolina is pronounced “BEW-fert.”

We stayed in a marina right on the waterfront in Beaufort, North Carolina for a week, as besides wanting to spend more time enjoying this fun town, we were hiding out from possible bad weather forecasted. The wind & rain never really made an appearance, Lori was able to make it to most of the gift shops & we made it to several of the great restaurants!

Much of the reason we never felt any wind is this beastly yacht moored off our bow

Before that yacht pulled in blocking our view, we could watch the wild horses just across the channel on Carrot Island

Overall the weather has been great this fall!  Probably the best fall travel weather of our 11 years with no hurricanes & only mild cold fronts. We could easily be in Florida by now, but we have insurance requirements which keep us north of the Florida line until after November 1st.

This is the old, beater loaner car the marina offers – the inside door handles don’t work, every idiot light on the dash goes on & go slow as the brakes are a little iffy!  But it’s “free” & got us back & forth to the bakery & grocery store.

Between Beaufort & Wrightsville Beach, NC we usually head offshore to get a break from the boats on ICW, avoid several opening bridges (even for us) & the Camp Lejeune firing range, but the offshore seas were still running 4′ – 6′ so we stayed inside.  Yes, the ICW gets closed occasionally while the military perform live fire exercises.  As we approached, the lights weren’t flashing & the folks on the naval patrol boats waved, so all was good – for us.  Just after passing thru, the lights began to flash, the patrol boats took their positions & we heard on the radio for the other boats to hold their positions – for 3 hours – before they would be able to continue.  Sometimes we have good timing!

While in Carolina Beach (for donuts… I mean groceries) we heard Amazon was shooting a movie. Unfortunately, the only thing more boring than watching filming, is watching the crew waiting to shut down the road to set up to begin filming.  Nevertheless, a surprising number of movies (& some TV series) are shot in the Carolinas.

We stopped in Georgetown for most of the day as they offer a great free day dock which allowed us to eat, explore & buy the best shrimp (almost) right off the boats at Independent Seafood.

We made it to beautiful (“BEW” – that’s how we remember) Beaufort, SC.  Oddly, the marina in-town said they were full, but we saw lots of empty slips. Hmmm… Oh well, we simply used the town’s great new, free day dock every day while anchoring nearby every night – much nicer anyway & it’s always very nice to save a couple hundred bucks – especially as the price of diesel is approaching twice what it was 2 years ago…

We’re slowly continuing south, planning to stop at Hilton Head (for the first time), then to Isle of Hope (near Savannah) to visit some fellow PDQ cruiser friends.