little tybee ~ unplugged tour

As the song goes, “there’s somethin’ bout a boat”. So going out with Captain Dave and Captain Rene Heidt from Sundial Charters on their Little Tybee Unplugged back country tour was truly a highlight during my Tybee Island visit this week. 🙂

Our group headed out on two boats from Fisherman’s Walk on the back river, for a three-hour tour of the marsh and beach nature preserve that is Little Tybee Island. Actually, “Little Tybee” is more than twice the size of Tybee Island ~ who knew! This is Captain Dave’s boat, shot from my bow perch on Captain Rene’s boat.

A couple of pretty views from the water. I loved this traditional Tybee cottage with the screen porch facing the water. Y’all know how much I love a porch!

As we headed through the back river and into the marsh Captain Rene gave us great information on the ecosystem that makes up the preserve. It’s really an incubator and nursery for that part of the ocean and teems with wildlife.

Captain Rene spotting a pod of dolphin off the starboard bow. Slowing to idle, while the dolphin surface and swim right next to the boat. Whoo-hoo!

Of course, trying to photograph wild dolphin swimming around your boat is nearly impossible. I mostly end up with empty water ripples, but at least I did catch a disappearing dorsal!

Fiddler the boat dog on look out for more dolphin from Captain Dave’s boat ~~~

After the dolphin visit, we continued into the marsh ~ with a definite primordial Jurassic park feel.

Yep, this where driftwood comes from ~ of course by the time it gets to the beach it has broken into smaller pieces.

And not to be out done by the dolphins, Captain Rene pointed out this bald eagle nest high in a tree. This pair of eagles has used this same nest for many seasons to raise their young ~ and their most recent offspring just happened to be hanging out waiting for the parents to return.

This young eagle will get the distinctive snowy white head as it matures.

After dolphins and eagles we made a brief stop to visit one of the Little Tybee beaches. This is truly unspoiled natural beauty ~~~

And then we made our way around to another beach, where the Sundial team had prepped a Lowcountry Boil feast for us. Corn, potatoes, smoked sausage, shrimp ~ local, fresh and perfect in this setting. 🙂

More beautiful driftwood. Wish I could take this home ~~~

The crew finishing up our afternoon feast. Just about to ring the dinner bell ~~~

Cooking on a deserted barrier island takes teamwork ~~~

Looks like we’re ready for the shrimp ~~~

Local shrimp going in ~~~

And teamwork to ready the pot for serving ~~~

I’m a happy Bluwatergal right now!

Oh and yes, there’s beer too ~ so I’m really happy! Boats, boil and beer could be a new Buffett song, but we have to head back before the tide turns ~~~

This was such a great opportunity to see a special place ~ accessible only by boat ~ with experienced captains to guide, handle logistics, and most importantly track the tides. Thank you Captain Rene, Captain Dave and the awesome team from Visit Tybee for sharing this great adventure. I can’t wait to go back to the island ~~~

 

 

Disclosure ~ Our trip was hosted by Visit Tybee and I was a guest on the tour. All opinions, photos, and giddy happy boat moments are completely my own ~~~