Getting Ready to Cruise!


Hilton Head Island
Monday… At about 7:30 pm we finally land at Hilton Head Island. We have been awake and traveling from Amsterdam to Ireland, then to Washington D.C., and finally to South Carolina, for over 19 hours. Ugh! 

 We pick up the rental car, stop at the grocery store for a few essential items, find Bravo at the dock, get aboard, make a couple of gin & tonics, we toast to our new adventure, and shortly after go to sleep. Long day tomorrow.

We are excited and very glad to be on-board!

 Tuesday… up early, drive to Parris Island, empty out the U-Haul pod with all our belongings into a moving truck. Drive back to the marina and using two dock carts, ferry our 40+ bins from the parking lot to the dock. It is 85 degrees and about 90% humidity. We rush to load everything that will not fit inside the boat onto the back deck before the torrential afternoon thunderstorms begin.

Lots of bins, with lots of stuff to load on board.

Wednesday-Saturday… Unpack all bins, figure out what goes where, and outfit the boat. Shop for provisions and remaining equipment. We take off the old boat name and install the new name, Bravo. 
Every storage area gets opened up in order to find the right place to put things.

The boat becomes a giant glob of stuff as we try to organize!

Finally, back together and sorted out.

The guest suite now even has our son's (Eric) artwork!

Some of the empty bins on the back deck.

The name Bravo is finally back!

Every day is hot, humid, and filled with heavy rain and thunderstorms. Once the rain stops for a few hours, we reward ourselves and take a break from unpacking and go explore one of the local beaches... 

Harbour Town Lighthouse

Harbour Town Beach on Hilton Head Island.

Beach is covered with shells.

...and we then took a short hike in the almost jungle-like swamp-lands of Hilton Head Island.
Hot, humid, and jungle like. Where's my machete?

This nice boardwalk went through the heart of the swamp.

That is water down there, and Nora did see an alligator!

Kind of like an abstract painting.

A lot of variety. These reeds were taller than us.

These trees had hundreds of these white birds.

Dragonflies abound.

And fortunately we didn't encounter this alligator.  

 We're ready to go!
We relax on the boat for the evening and watch another torrential thunderstorm. Our friend and broker, James Knight of Yacht Tech has coordinated the first leg of our maiden voyage to be with the 62' Nordhavn "Lady KAE". Lady KAE was due to arrive late Saturday evening from Florida, but due to the thunderstorm, high winds, and entering a new harbor in these conditions in darkness, she wisely elects to anchor just outside of Shelter Cove Marina until daybreak. 

 We'll see what tomorrow brings!  

Comments

  1. WKJuly 8, 2019 at 8:44 AM

    I love dragonflies. When you get to Maine, look for the dragonflies with the black bodies and the metallic blue and green butterfly wings. Really, only 1 alligator?

    ReplyDelete

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