Hilton Head, SC

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We slept through the early morning departure from Beaufort and woke up as we neared Hilton Head. The weather prediction was off by a few hours and there was some sun shining as we anchored. We saw a lot of dolphins/porpoises as we sailed in and at anchor. The wildlife winner here though was pelicans. Since it looked good this morning, we counted the morning tour participant lists and came up with near 20. They had told us the open launch tender held 40, so we got in position behind the tour people to get a spot. Just to be able to set foot ashore. As we waited the Captain signaled his intention to leave early by warning everyone tendering at 9 to be back on the 11:15 am return tender because he wanted to have the option to scrub the afternoon here. We are really glad we decided not to carry on with our Segway plans here to wait and see about tendering.

It turns out there wasn't much to see around the Harbour Town Yacht Basin where we tendered ashore. It was a very short tender ride. It was mostly like a small outdoor mall. Most of the stores didn't open until 10 am. Clay bought a sale t-shirt. There was a small fake red and white lighthouse that is supposedly a famous landmark. You can pay to walk up and visit a gift shop, but we didn't as the rain had arrived and there was an unscheduled launch ready to leave. We got onboard in time to ehar the announcement that due to incoming thunderstorms, we'd sail at noon. I hope the afternoon tour boat people aren't too upset.The new Captain is much more informative than the first one. He said this worked out better for tides and the ICW too since we'd catch a daytime passage to Savannah and arrive this afternoon. We were already scheduled for an overnight there, so hopefully they can get our dock space early. We are scheduled to depart Savannah st 4:30 am on 11/14.

Lunch is at 12:30 pm. There is a popcorn movie scheduled in the lounge at 2:45. Clay doesn't want to watch from across the lounge. We picked up a DVD from the 2nd deck midship lounge to watch in the cabin. Clay says he'll go get the popcorn. I smell a nap this afternoon.

Annie started her popcorn movie at about 2:15 instead of 2:45 and I missed out on getting popcorn. It feels warmer and sunnier here in Savannah even though the hourly forecast is showing a 54% chance of storms right now. Clay already ordered a lamb shank for dinner so it is not clear yet if we'll stay onboard or go ashore. We are docked right on River Street, but we haven't figured out what's near by yet, as of 2:40pm. They don't have the gangway out yet.

We are docked on the port side.We are docked near 160 East River St. We went up a parking lot and an old steep flight of stairs to find ourselves in front of Five Guys. We walked another block and a half and checked out the Johnny Mercer statue in Ellis Square. Our destination was in sight. Sorry Charlie's Oyster Bar. $1 Oysters M-F from 4-6 pm + $3 local draft beers. Clay gets his faves and still gets his lamb shank onboard after 6:30pm. I had hot hush puppies in honey butter. It was comfortable ashore and we neve did see rain here. Fingers crossed for weatehr this nice tomorrow for our 90 minute 10 am Segway tour.

The new Captain is named Stokowski. Unlike the previous week's Captain, this one is sociable. He sat with us during cocktail hour as well as spent time with others.  He came to dinner and filled the last chair at our table. It has been a nice change. We learned that the ACL Independence was purpose built to sail the Intracoastal Waterway and is the biggest ship that can sail it.

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