Adjusting to Life Underway

9-27-13

We have been adjusting to life underway/at anchor and enjoying it.  Today we tried out another shower system.  We hung our solar shower through the overhead hatch and used it in combination with the aft shower hose.  Just trying out various methods.  While s/v Honey Ryder has large water tanks, we still need to be very careful about our water usage so we can stay out of marina's longer.  Showers aboard mean hosing down just enough to get almost wet and then shutting the water off, lathering up and then hosing off quickly with minimal water used.  Next it was time to open Salon Caliber -aka hair cut day.  Previous hair cuts as liveaboards have been successful but those were always at the top of our dock, a stable platform with plenty of room.  Salon Caliber opened in our sun room aka cockpit enclosure (good thing too as the NE wind was blowing.  If we had not had the enclosure, I think we would have ended up with new, modern looking side cuts complements of the wind.)  Both trims turned out ok if you don't look too closely!

View of the beautiful day out our sky light in the cockpit

It's a beautiful day with sunny skies.  Not too hot and not too cool.  Just right!
Next we dinghy'd into Palmetto Bay Marina in Broad Creek on Hilton Head.  We were able to tie up the dinghy No Charge.  Then we hiked approx. 2 miles to the Publix grocery store.  It was time to get some basic fresh provisions such as milk, eggs, bread, fruits, veggies, etc...  With fully loaded backpacks and a shopping bag each, we slowly made our way back to the marina, stopping twice to rest on convenient park benches along the walking trail that parallels a busy cross island thoroughfare. 
Note on this anchorage - We are just around the first bend on the south side of the creek before the bridge.  Both Skipper Bob and Active Captain recommend this anchorage.  Neither mentioned that there is a small mooring field.  We found at least one mooring submerged during rising tide.  As I have mentioned before on this blog, we are still learning about anchoring with tidal swing.  Previously we have always swung out into whatever creek and then around when the tide changes.  Here on Broad Creek we found that we instead swung towards the creek bank and around.  I don't know if this is a function of being closer to the shoreline vs mid creek or not.  We did ok the first night.  However the next morning at low tide we did actually ground ourselves.  Nothing too bad - soft mud.  In fact, the only way I knew was that we weren't swing the rest of the way around like the other boats.  Uh-oh.  A quick check of the depth meter confirmed.  Tom raised 10-15 ft of the anchor and it was just enough to float us again and we swung on around with the tide.  It is also worth noting that there is a fair amount of traffic on this river - ferries, tourist boats and kayakers.  Some coming relatively close to our boat.  We had some small wakes and lots of chances to  Smile for the camera!