The Sound Swims Into Fall

Hilton Head banks a Southern summer in shallow water, the sound and the sea both riding warm into fall, the ocean holding the mid-seventies through October most years and the calm sound side warmer still, and the island's fall swimmers, residents mostly by then, share the water with the dolphins that work the flats at their closest of the year. The last swim of these pages runs long in the lowcountry, and this island stretches it nearly to November with the bicycle miles to match.

The island's swimming geography rewards the season, the long ocean beach, per its pieces in these pages, riding firm and wide at low tide for the swim-and-cycle combinations the island invented, the sound-side beaches at the toe of the island running bath-calm for the laps and the small children who have all, conveniently, returned to school, and the water clarity improving as the summer's heat and crowds retire together. The October mornings, warm sea under crisp air, produce the steam-off-the-breakers effect the photographers and the early walkers split between them.

The late swims anchor the island's connoisseur season, per the shoulder arithmetic, the golf and tennis at their weather best, the oyster roasts of the lowcountry pieces firing up as the evenings cool, and the tables and villas at softened terms. The dolphin cruises and kayak trips of the sound work their richest weeks as the bait schools run, and the birding on the flats builds toward the winter censuses.

Swim daily through any October stay, alternating ocean and sound, and take the trip's last swim at the quiet toe-of-island beach at high tide, dolphins permitting, which they generally do. Follow with the oyster roast the season schedules for exactly that appetite. The island sells its summers hard, per the resort arithmetic of these pages, and gives its Octobers away gently, warm water included, which is the trade the informed traveler takes annually.