Most Hilton Head homeowners talk about their dock the way other people talk about a parking space. Convenient, mostly. At Wexford, the dock is something different. The community's 37-acre inland harbour sits behind one of only three lock systems on the East Coast, holding water at a nearly constant eight feet regardless of what the tide is doing outside. That single piece of engineering changes the shape of a weekend. You untie whenever you feel like it, and within a short cruise you can be tied up at more of the island's waterfront restaurants than any other address makes possible.
The point of this guide is not to inventory every marina between Skull Creek and Braddock Cove. It's to give Wexford residents a working map of the dock-and-dine options that make the boat feel less like a hobby and more like a second car. The lock is the argument. What follows is the itinerary.
Fifteen Minutes from the Lock
Once you've cleared the harbour and turned into Broad Creek, the closest sit-down meal is almost embarrassingly close. Broad Creek Marina at 18 Simmons Road offers 53 wet slips for boats up to 55 feet plus two slips for vessels up to 100 feet, and no-charge dockage for restaurant guests at Up the Creek Pub & Grill on the deck. The Broad Creek Burger has its own small fan club. If you're out early and just want coffee and something handheld, Paddles, the marina's food-truck offshoot near the pier, handles a waterfront breakfast without the sit-down commitment.
A few docks over sits Fishcamp on Broad Creek, which operates in the same building where Charlie Simmons, a Gullah sailor who ferried visitors on and off the island, established Simmons Fishcamp in 1955. The Lowcountry boil and the seafood towers are the honest orders. It's a room with real provenance, and it is fifteen minutes from your slip.
A Little Farther Down the Creek
Head west and the options multiply.
Palmetto Bay Marina, established in 1958 and one of the deepest marinas on the island at roughly 22 feet even at low tide, gives you four restaurants clustered around the same set of docks: Black Marlin, the Hurricane Bar, Carolina Crab Co., and Sunrise Cafe. Black Marlin is the reliable dinner. The Hurricane Bar is where the sunset happens. If someone in the group wants steak and someone wants she-crab soup, this is the marina that solves the argument.
Shelter Cove Harbour & Marina is the largest deepwater marina on the island, with 178 slips accommodating vessels up to 145 feet. It's also the one to plan a full evening around. On summer nights the harbour hosts fireworks, live music, and enough shops to justify walking off dinner before you cast off. Wexford families with grandchildren visiting tend to make Shelter Cove the default; the layout works for kids in a way that a purely nautical marina does not.
A quick reference for planning:
| Marina | Distance from Wexford | Notable On-Site Dining |
|---|---|---|
| Broad Creek Marina | Short cruise up Broad Creek | Up the Creek Pub & Grill, Paddles |
| Palmetto Bay Marina | Mid-Broad Creek, near Charles E. Fraser Bridge | Black Marlin, Carolina Crab Co., Hurricane Bar, Sunrise Cafe |
| Shelter Cove Harbour & Marina | East side of Broad Creek | Multiple waterfront restaurants and evening entertainment |
| Skull Creek Marina | North end via Intracoastal | Access to Port Royal Sound |
| Harbour Town Yacht Basin | South end, Sea Pines | Quarterdeck, Harbourside, Harbour Town Bakery & Cafe |
| Hudson's Seafood dock | Skull Creek side, Port Royal Sound | Hudson's Seafood House on the Docks |
North Toward Port Royal Sound
If the wind is right and you want a longer run, point the bow toward the north end. Skull Creek Marina sits just off the Intracoastal with concrete floating docks that handle boats up to 200 feet, and it opens onto Port Royal Sound and the Atlantic beyond. The marina itself is a functional stop for fuel, but the real destination up here is Hudson's Seafood House on the Docks at 1 Hudson Road, the oldest seafood restaurant on the island. Hudson's was converted from a seafood processing plant in 1967 and still sources over 90 percent of its seafood from local boats. The restaurant reports serving guests roughly 3,000 gallons of cooked oysters, 70,000 pounds of shrimp, and more than 350,000 raw oysters on the half shell each year. Seating is first-come, first-served. Tie up at the dock, put your name in, and have a drink outside while you wait.
The Skull Creek run is worth it once or twice a season. Sunsets over the sound do not look like sunsets over the creek.
South to Harbour Town
The southern route out of Broad Creek delivers you to the most photographed marina in the Lowcountry. Harbour Town Yacht Basin inside The Sea Pines Resort was designed with Portofino in mind and remains one of the top yachting destinations on the Atlantic Intracoastal. From the docks you can walk to The Quarterdeck for seafood, Harbourside for a burger and a beer, or the Harbour Town Bakery & Cafe for the morning-after breakfast if you've stayed the night.
For the shorter Sea Pines option, South Beach Marina at the southern tip is the closest tie-up to the Atlantic, with a New England-style village feel and its own cluster of restaurants and shops. It handles smaller boats up to 30 feet, which makes it the more practical stop for a Wexford owner running a runabout rather than a full cruiser.
One to Watch
The dock-and-dine map is about to shift. Marsh Side, a new SERG Restaurant Group concept, is slated to open at Broad Creek Marina in spring 2027. The project is led by Chris Spargur in partnership with chef Chris Carge and three other longtime SERG partners. Spargur has described the design as Nantucket-influenced on the outside, with salvaged wood and expansive windows inside, and a menu built around local seafood and locally sourced vegetables under Chef Carge. A dedicated children's play area with lawn games is planned, which will make it another realistic evening for Wexford families with visiting grandchildren. Worth keeping on the calendar.
When You'd Rather Stay Landside
Not every night calls for a boat. The Village at Wexford, immediately outside the front gate, is a walkable answer for the evenings when leaving the harbour feels like too much. The center holds more than 30 merchants across roughly nine restaurants and a range of specialty retail.
A few names that come up repeatedly among residents:
- OMBRA Cucina Italiana, led by Chef Michael Cirafesi, for the fine-dining Italian evening with an Italian-heavy wine list.
- Michael Anthony's Market Cafe, the trattoria-style sister to Michael Anthony's Cucina Italiana, for a lighter lunch or an early happy hour with cocktails and snack plates from 4:30 to 5:30.
- British Open Pub for the lobster roll and patio dining.
- Java Burrito Company for a casual midweek lunch.
- Smith Galleries and Hilton Head Oils and Balsamics when you're taking a visitor around and want to make an afternoon of it.
The Village is also the practical answer when a guest arrives without appropriate boat shoes and you'd rather not explain the concept of a wet transom.
A Note on Timing
Two logistical points that new Wexford owners tend to learn the hard way.
First, the lock is manned 24 hours by a harbormaster, so departure and return timing is your call rather than the tide's. That flexibility is easy to underuse. Sunset dinners at Hudson's or the Hurricane Bar are noticeably better when you don't have to rush the run home.
Second, several of the dock-and-dine restaurants seat first-come, first-served. Hudson's does not take reservations. That's a feature at a boating destination, not a bug. It means you arrive by water, put your name in, and treat the wait as part of the evening rather than a scheduling failure.
The Point of the Harbour
Wexford's lock harbour is often described as a security feature, and it is. It's also a hedge against hurricanes and a way to keep water depth predictable for owners who care about their hulls. But the more useful way to think about it, once you actually live behind the gate, is as the shortest commute on the island to a working waterfront dining scene. From the moment you cast off, Broad Creek delivers Up the Creek and Fishcamp in minutes, Palmetto Bay and Shelter Cove within a comfortable cruise, and Harbour Town or Hudson's when the day calls for something longer. Marsh Side will add one more pin to that map in 2027.
The house sells itself on architecture, the golf course, and the harbour views. The lifestyle sells itself the first weekend you realize the boat gets more use than the car.
If you're a Wexford owner thinking about how your property fits into what's coming next on the island, or you're considering a move into the community and want a candid read on how the harbour actually gets used day to day, Lynne Anderson Luxury Team would be glad to talk. Schedule a Free Consultation and we'll put 35-plus years of local experience to work for you.
