10/25/2012 =>Hilton Head Island, SC
0830: the decision has been made…or rather Sandy
made it for us!
Mobileweatherundergound.com/accuweather.com/windfinder.com all are
predicting the same thing: massive winds
and high surf well into next week due to Hurricane Sandy (the bitch!) The N wind was
already picking up this morning as we pulled anchor and headed for the fuel
dock! In fact, attempting to dock the
boat at the dock was a wonderful challenge this morn; 2 circles, a smashed
finger (it’s a lovely black with some
hints of purple surrounding the nail),a
bleeding knee, and 3 splinters in a foot later, Mike finally left the
cockpit to start the process of the refueling (it’s good to be captain, I tell ya!) Salty and I went for a walk
down the docks onto the Beaufort walk.
As we passed the boats docked there, we saw Galileo (last mention from dismal swamp/Elizabeth
city area) and Windaway, both docked end to end of each other! After our walk, as I was going back onto the
docks, I see Mike about to walk towards the boats of our friends. I yelled out to get his attention: I already had a plan! We ran back to the boat: I grabbed one of our designated bottles of
wine (we bought 4 for this purpose)
and made 2 different notes! The first
was to go with the wine for Windaway as a “thank you for saving our boat!” and
a quick little note for Galileo saying hello!
We left our wine bomb and note and headed out (needed to make sure we were still with the tide) to a hopefully
protected anchorage or marina at Hilton Head Island. I had researched an anchorage and a marina
within short distance of each other at the island. Our plan was to see the anchorage, if it
would be good for the night of high N winds before moving into the marina for
the passing of Sandy. As we crossed the
sound into the Hilton Head Island passage, the wind started blowing hard from
the NE…and while the weather was sunny, the rocking and bouncing made for a
very, very uncomfortable ride (Salty was
forced into her lifevest and stowed in the main cabin…she hates this btw). As we got the desired anchorage…well, at 1300
the boats moored there we already rocking and rolling! Imprudent descion to move onto the marina was
made. The marina is called Shelter Cove
(a good sign) and offered a “stay 2
nights, get one free” deal, so while the initial price per sq ft was higher
than we liked, it ends up working itself out!
Best part of this place, unbeknownst to us, is that it’s actually owned
by Disney…ha! Disney’s Hilton Head
Resort operates the marina! I can now
say I have stayed at a Disney Vacation Resort! Woot wooo! Ha!
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| Hilton Head Island |
As we docked,
the 48’ trawler owners came out to help with our lines. They are a couple from Rhode Island (Block Island!) who were slowly moving
south, restocking for the past month at this marina. We could hear the wind starting to howl, so
obviously decided to go to the beach!
HHI is very bike
friendly: the whole island contains
paved bike paths, sometimes along the road, sometimes through the woods. This is the best way to get around the
island, I think anyway! We hoped onto
the bike trail leading to the beach. We
had heard from our neighbors at the marina that the sand on the beach was
compacted so much to allow for one to ride their bike along the shore line…and
that we did (with salty in tow, of course)
Spoiled Dog
As the winds were predominately from the NW
at the time, the beach felt rather calm…minus the insane waves and grey
skies. We rode down the beach quite a
ways to the main strip of stores/restaurants, mainly to just walk around and
enjoy the scene. On the way back, we
stopped at a gas station store…and bought our first RedBox movie rental. We were super excited to go back to the boat
and do NOTHING but watch our movie! That
night the temperature started to drop and the wind got even noisier, but we
felt barely a push in the boat.
10/26/2012 =>Sandy comes along: HHI
0830: the decision has been made…or rather Sandy
made it for us!
Mobileweatherundergound.com/accuweather.com/windfinder.com all are
predicting the same thing: Hurricane
Sandy is to cross 20 miles from us this night.
Severely high winds (50 mph) and rough seas (excess of 10’ swells)
combined with the high tides to hit around 2000. As the morning progressed, the howling of the
wind intensified, but again, we were in a very safe harbor! In fact, the marina’s resort surrounded the
marina on all sides, with restaurants/shops at the ground level: not one of
which bothered to bring in their merchandise or outdoor seating! We talked to our neighbors to the port (large
trawler) early in the morning about having a cocktail party around 1700, and
shortly before we set off to explore some more of the island, our neighbor to
starboard came over to say hello! His
name is Nick (think of a cross between Drew Carry and our friend Dave
Tannenbaum), he lives aboard his 28’ motor boat…which his cat! He is one of the rare liveaboards, in that he
actually has a job…and a condo on the island.
He chooses to rent out the condo and live in the marina…kind of a cool
life style! He offered to let us use his
internet, as he pays so much for it but rarely ever goes on; SWEET!! I quickly logged onto the computer to set it
up; perfect signal!
At encountered
much the same as the day before:
overcast, windy, and a bit rougher seas.
The temp was dropping though, so I made Salty wear her sweatshirt! Our hurricane Happy Hour aboard the 48’
trawler was very nice! Nick even came
in, and we were able to talk to all about our travels/their travels. I can tell you though…the galley in that boat
was bigger than the Bedford Place’s!!!
They even had a washer/dryer AND dishwasher! So jealous!
Flatscreens are a perquisite in these puppies too! Both Mike and I decided we shall def have one
sometime in our future…nevermind that as soon as it starts, it burns more gas
than we use in a month, the boat has HVAC!
10/27-30/2012 Hilton Head
The resort has a
deal: stay 2 nights, get the 3rd
free…so we took advantage of it. Weather
was still insane in wind and seas enough for us to feel safer at the
marina. Most days, we just explored the
island on our bikes with the occasional stop at the Piggly Wiggly. Nights however turned colder and colder: we got down to 36 degrees for 2 nights in a
row! I am not completely sure why (36degree nights with wind in a non heated
space mayyyy have been the cause) but I got evil sick!) I am prone to sinus issues, and as such have
enough prescribed medication to choke a horse, but I still got a severe fever,
cough, swollen glands, and achy! Both
Mike and I dreaded the flu attaching itself to me! I was hesitant to take my “happy” pill (a crazy antibiotic my doctor gave me only 5
of before leaving, to combat my crazy attack of the heads) due to its
strong side effects; nausea, sleepiness, and the random “you may do drive a
car, make food, eat food, have intercourse, wander the streets..” and not
remember….Can you imagine if I decided to take a walk around HHI!! Ha. We had no choice however. Mike closed me into my bunk with a bucket for
the night, while he stayed on the couch in case I decided to become a culinary
expert or take a midnight bike ride!
It’s amazing how well those pills work; by morning, I was covered in sweat
(fever broke) and the glands were back down to a slightly larger than normal
size! Still felt horrible, but …what
else does one do when getting over an illness but take a 6 mile bike ride to
Wal-Mart! Ha. (I was
running out of box wine).
We left Salty at
the boat for this ride, Mike not wanting me to have the added stress of her and
to take my sick a$$ out to lunch somewhere warm. The ride back was great! We rode to the closest beach and let the wind
push us home! Honestly, I could put my
feet up on the center bar and still keep going without peddling!
Much of our
nights during this time period were spent watching and listening for Sandy as
she ripped up the North. Both of us were
glad to have been in safe harbor, but at the same time wish we could have been
home: Jersey City flooded last year with
Irene, we both thought our condo would be washed out by the runoff coming down
Waldo. Our thoughts and prayers were
with all our family and friends, their homes…B elatedly, we remembered we still
own another sailboat! We hope Sly John
stayed right where we left him: next to Nan’s house on a lagoon at Barnegat
Bay.
10/31/2012 =>attempt to leave HHI…
0900; Its SOOOOOO cold! I am slowly getting better…but this bitter
cold is NOT helping. I am in SC for
goodness sake! Our deal with the marina
was up, and we wanted to move onto Georgia so decided to leave…ha. As we entered the main waterway, a huge wave
hit us on the portside…fun! We knew it
was either turn around or grin and bear it for an hour to another marina south,
at the tip of HHI…so we just went through (salty
went below). We pulled into
Harbortown Marina at HHI around 1030. If
you have a lighthouse picture of HHI in your head, it’s from this marina/golf
course/beach area. The lighthouse sits
right at the entry of the marina. Like
the Disney place, this is surrounded by stores/restaurants, etc….including a
little convenience store (coffee!). Also, upon registration, we received a bunch
of discounts to local places and a bottle of wine..so, aside from Cape May this
is my new favorite stop!
Hilton Head Lighthouse
As it is my
favorite holiday, I dressed up Salty in her “Go Navy” sweatshirt and put my
sailor hat on her…she promptly turned her back on us and refused to even glance
our way…so I switched out the sailor hat for my panda winter hat…she was much
more apt to sit for pictures. A
neighboring boater came over to talk to us briefly, as well as unload a bag of
fun size candy (milky ways, snickers, etc)…sweet! Ha.
Salty as a "sexy" Panda
As we were relaxing
with our new “free” bottle of wine, Mike received an email from our yacht
club: the photos of the devastation to
the yacht yard where amazing and extremely sad!
Boats were thrown all over each other, broken apart, some even up on the
cliff! The bathhouse, locker rooms and
storage building were reduced to nothing (what
happens when 30’ sailboats come off their land jacks and just float around…). We saw pictures of the Amory, where we held
our wedding reception and across the parking lot of the club; ground floor
windows/doors blown out, the outdoor area completely gone! Our renter in Jersey City held threw the
storm, saying the backyard fence between us and the next bldg was done, but
that was it. We considered ourselves
lucky, but were anxious to hear from friends/family about their well being.
At the same
time, we were also waiting to hear about flights in/out of NYC. Some of our besties’ were to be meeting us in
Savannah come Nov 2nd!
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