Calibogue Sound, SC: Between Hilton Head and Daufuskie

Between

Hilton Head’s south end and Daufuskie Island

On its shore

Harbour Town and the Haig Point Lighthouse

Part of

the Intracoastal Waterway

Swimming

no: strong current and a steep drop-off

Calibogue Sound is the broad stretch of salt water between Hilton Head and Daufuskie Island. It is the water you see from the Harbour Town lighthouse, the water the Daufuskie boats cross, and the place most of the island’s dolphin cruises, parasail boats and sunset sails head for. Here is what it is, how to get out on it and where to watch it from land.

Where Is Calibogue Sound?

The sound runs along the south and southwest side of Hilton Head, between Sea Pines and Daufuskie Island, and opens to the Atlantic where South Beach faces Daufuskie’s southern tip. Broad Creek, the long tidal creek that cuts into the middle of Hilton Head, empties into it. On the Hilton Head side sit Harbour Town and its marina; across the water, the white 1873 Haig Point Lighthouse stands on Daufuskie’s north end.

It is also a stretch of the Atlantic Intracoastal Waterway. Boats running the waterway south come off Port Royal Sound into Skull Creek, follow it down the back of the island into Calibogue Sound, then turn off into Ramshorn Creek and the New River toward Savannah. Its sister sound on the island’s north end is Port Royal Sound.

Crossing Calibogue Sound to Daufuskie

There is no bridge to Daufuskie, so every trip there is a boat ride. Boats from Harbour Town cross the sound in about half an hour, passing the Haig Point Lighthouse, and land at Freeport Marina; a water taxi from the Harbour Town marina makes it in about 20 minutes. The Daufuskie Island ferry page has every timetable, from the public ferry to the day trips.

Dolphins, Boats and the Sandbar

Atlantic bottlenose dolphins live in Calibogue Sound and the creeks around it all year, and a cruise out of Harbour Town or Broad Creek will almost always find them. On a falling tide they sometimes herd fish onto a mud bank and lunge after them, the strand feeding Hilton Head’s dolphins are known for. See Hilton Head dolphin tours.

• Parasailing: all three of the island’s parasail boats fly over the sound. See parasailing.

• Kayaking and paddleboarding: guided tours go out on the sound and slip into the marsh at high tide. See kayaking.

• Sunset cruises: from Harbour Town, the boats watch the sun go down over the sound and Daufuskie. See sunset cruises.

• The Vanishing Island: a sandbar in the sound that rises out of the water around low tide and disappears again. It is only reached by boat. See shelling.

Fishing Calibogue Sound

The sound fishes well all year. Redfish, spotted seatrout, flounder and black drum work the sound and Broad Creek, sheepshead hang around the docks and pilings, and tripletail lie up next to buoys and channel markers in summer. Bull sharks live here too. The tide rises and falls 6 to 8 feet and the current runs hard, so the fish move with it. A half-day inshore charter is the easy way to learn it: see Hilton Head fishing.

Is It Safe to Swim in Calibogue Sound?

Don’t. Off the south end of the island the bottom drops away steeply and the tide pulls hard through the sound twice a day, and it carries heavy boat traffic in summer. Swim on the ocean side, near a lifeguard at one of the main beach parks. Check the Hilton Head tide times before any trip on the water: high and low tide in the sound run about a quarter hour later than on the ocean beaches.

Where to See Calibogue Sound

• Harbour Town: the covered Harbour Town Pier has the yacht basin on one side and the sound on the other, and the lighthouse looks down on both.

• South Beach: the beach at the southern tip of Sea Pines, where the ocean meets the sound. See South Beach.

• Bloody Point, Daufuskie: the wide beach at Daufuskie’s southern tip, where the Atlantic meets the sound. See Bloody Point.