sailn said:
very representative of those places. Have been at least 4 times.
- The "cant sail unless the outboard is on the big boat" rule is obnoxious, especially for just a couple . renting a cat with the transom mounted hoist system solves that.
- why its unsafe at night on OB surprises me , as many south carolina beaches in summer have people on the beach long past dark (say at hilton head in front of the hotels)
- odd no one have ever put up even a small dingy dock on O Beach. what u did with the dingy was smart (bow into the waves), but you risk running over and cutting up the person at the bow- we have had lots of problems with that situation even with 2 couples and a "paid" helper from the beach and during the day. first few waves are very sharp. one solution is to go to the club o end and go in there, few waves. we do that.
- taking a dingy across the bay at night - I dont do that.
great write up
Thanks for the feedback,
-- Not totally sure about how unsafe the beach is at night - heard both opinions. I suspect it's less safe than SC in front of hotels at the very least.
-- Yeah, a cat with a davit would be easier and we have considered it for next time but it's overkill (and +$1K) for a couple, (and it's a cat...) so next time, I'm just leaving the motor on the dink and taking my chances.
-- I suspect a dock on OB would quickly get pounded into oblivion. I had the same thought of going to the watersports area of Club O next time but wasn't sure if they would frown on that. I asked around and people seemed to think they wouldn't care (I know the whole beach is public access but still...). Good to know that you have done that. The only problem is that it doesn't seem like I can get very close to that end to anchor which makes for a long-ish dink ride to that end. Frustrating that there is no solution if I want to be at Ile Pinel either. Agreed, dinking across the bay at night is not smart.
Tom