Island Shuttle Boat Tours

02/02/2025

We are super thankful to have the best people helping us take care of you. Our Captain Billy Barrow has been operating and maintaining boats for more than 10 years for Freedom Boat Club of Savannah , he is the "Swiss Army Knife" of boat people. We always ask about your experience, and with Billy on the job, it's always good. This year we will make more use of this young man's skills and be more often available to take 12 pax at a time on runs to Daufuskie Island, South Carolina :-)

01/28/2025

We've already booked Daufuskie trips for the year up through June. And here is our first trip for July. These two Doctors of Veterinary Medicine go with us every year, and met our dog Gandy just after we rescued him from the Sheriff's department. Sarah always asks about him! Couldn't find a picture of the docs, but here's Gandy post-rescue 3 years ago.

01/20/2025

We love making you happy:-)

01/18/2025

Success!

PSA! If you are driving a car, cart, or other form of transport on Daufuskie Island, South Carolina today, please be on the lookout for runners participating in the marathon and half-marathon.
They will be on the roads and lanes shown on the map (courtesy Daufuskie Island Marathon) and may not be as aware of you as you are of them. Long distance running can create physiologic changes that affect behavior and might affect situational awareness.
This foot race shares the roads with regular traffic. That is not common, so it falls on us vehicle operators to be extra careful.
Let's all help make the event spectacular so the runners come back next year and bring all their friends:-)
We appreciate the boost to our business at this slower time of year!

01/17/2025

Chillaxin OTW to a foot race on DI:-) Even the birds are loving the weather!

01/16/2025

Two loads of runners to DI today for the marathon. Have fun friends!
Captain Billy Barrow on the helm...

01/15/2025

Presley Auto Trim did not disappoint! 1 day service and beautiful workmanship. The nose cushion is back on Dash 1. Check them out for car AND boat trims... Super nice guy.
912 233-3163
And for good measure the Sea Star steering system on that boat was rebuilt too. (When you start seeing a sheen on the water behind the boat during engine rinses, it's often related to the seals on the actuator going bad). Brian rebuilt it while we weren't looking:-)

We went ahead and changed the sacrificial zinc anodes on Dash 2 as well as they were almost half gone. Galvanic corrosion and all...

01/10/2025

We love it when our motors get love, attention, and services! Getting both boats serviced today to be ready for you tomorrow! Thanks to Savannah Boathouse for being the best. marina. ever!
PS Ain't that 300 awesome?

01/09/2025

"The Scrap Iron does three things to you!
It makes you smart!
It makes you funny!
And it makes you beautiful!
It is understandable to want more of that after drinking one Scrap Iron.
But before you buy round 2 (or most especially round 3), stand yourself up and walk around the bar. If you can't walk around the bar, stop buying them."
(Captain Dan's Daufuskie Gouge)

If you visit Daufuskie Island, you will surely come across the "Scrap Iron" drink made and sold at Freeport Marina's Old Daufuskie Crab Comp...

01/07/2025

Ok, it's winter. We get that. But there are lots of fantastic boating days happening right now!
No matter the season, Daufuskie folk still have to go back and to. Here's lovely Melissa just back to DI from the ATL, and it's smiles all around!
Did you know, if you are a regular with us, we help with the groceries! While our driver was bringing Melissa to the marina from the airport, we went by Kroger and grabbed her grub. No charge. We take care of our customers. Because they become our friends!

01/05/2025

Spring break is right around the corner! Book your boat trip to Daufuskie Island, South Carolina now to get the choice of times for the trip.

Check-in on the island is at 4 pm in most cases, and check out is usually at 10 am. Our most popular departure times from Savannah Boathouse for the 30 minute ride to the County Dock are 3pm for overnight guests and 9:30 am for day trippers. Our most popular pickup times for returns are 10:30 for checkouts and 4pm for returning day-trippers.

This year we are planning marina departure times at 8am, 9:30 am, 11am, 1:30 pm, and 3 pm. Departing Daufuskie for returns at 9 am, 10:30 am, 12 pm, 2:30 pm, and 4pm. Ask about pricing for trips earlier or later than these hours. All trips are on demand and boat minimum applies. See our website for rates, policies, parking and limitations.

islandshuttleboattours.com

Or just call or text us and we will give you the info. We book all travel over the phone, as every online booking service in existence charges fees, and neither of us needs to pay those. Another reason to talk to you is that you often have questions about DI, and we prefer to use actual intelligence to answer them rather than artificial intelligence. Our number is 912 657-5222

If your plans are flexible and you are a solo traveler or couple going for overnight(s) visit, or less than 4 going for the day, we will try to add you to another group to avoid having to charge you the boat minimum. We can also avoid the minimum by putting you on the front or backside of a trip for another group of travellers.

01/04/2025

A future DI visitor asked about what to to on Daufuskie Island, South Carolina .
Here are just a few ideas...
"Freeport is a great place for fun, food, and drinks. Open pretty much every day.
Walk on the beach in the early morning, you might be the only ones there.
Go see how spirits come to life at the Daufuskie Island Distillery, and grab a bite while you visit.
Check out the Silver Dew Winery and Lighthouse and Museum--get the DI back story.
Then explore the back roads and enjoy the experience of using a golf cart to get around.
Eat BBQ and go Up in Smoke.
Eat oysters at Melrose Oyster House on the edge of Calibogue Sound.
Visit Frye’s Corner for lip-smackin' "Fryed" Shrimp and Chicken.
Start your day at School Grounds Coffee, end it in your beautiful accommodations, surrounded by friends and family:-)

PS Don't forget to do the stingray shuffle:-)'

01/03/2025

Any day that includes meeting a United States Marine is a good day!!!
Thanks Bernard, for bringing our passengers to us safely!
Semper Fi brother!

01/02/2025

First 7 pax of 2025 in the logbook. Two chilly but beautiful runs to Daufuskie Island, South Carolina and we start our year in motion!

12/29/2024

While bringing Denise and her daughter back from DI yesterday, we did a systems check and happened to scroll through the "miles on the motor" page just as it clocked 12,000 miles! We passed that "milestone" in two years!

The motor has been magnificent, and we purposely try to keep it that way. We have a factory trained tech perform factory recommended service at the factory recommended intervals.

We don't do charters that put us in a grounding situation.
We can't have mud getting into our powerhead and building up deposits that capture salt and prevent a good fresh water flush.

That leads to corrosion and catastrophic failure. This happened 2 years and 4 months ago on the 150 on the first boat on the way to a DI pickup. The motor corroded through and a "chocolate shake" of oil and salt water puked out of all the orifices. We bought a new motor for the first boat and then replaced the Yamaha 250 on the second boat with the Suzuki 300. To be safe.

We learned from that experience. We flush our motors immediately after every single trip, while the thermostats are still open and fresh water is going to all parts of the motor.

The paint is still on our skeg (the little fin at the bottom of the motor.) It has not been run through mud. On purpose.

We are careful with our motors, because we carry your children on our boats, and it is our responsibility to do everything possible to ensure that they do not fail with kids (and you) on board. Along those lines, we also do not cross the Savannah River if a large cargo ship is within a mile of crossing the intracoastal waterway. We stop and wait and tell a story.

Why?

Well, as confident as we are about the care and feeding of our motors, they are--after all--machines. And machines DO fail sometimes at the worst possible moment.

Ships in the river cannot stop quickly, and will not veer out of the channel. So we don't tempt fate. It's in our mental and muscle memory to assess and mitigate risk, and we've been doing it for decades.

Have a happy and safe New Year!

PS posting a link to our previous life and dealing with risk. If you want to know what makes us tick, read on...

https://helicopterems.blogspot.com/2015/12/hoisted-on-my-own-petard.html?m=1