Island Explorer Tour in Hilton Head Island, SC

The worst experience of our lives. We booked a 3 hour tour to get us to vanishing island , where we could stay for 60 minutes exploring. Our boat was a hulled speed boat, and we went fast to the island. The weather started to become stormy, and instead of spending 60 minutes there, we had less than 10. Given that the weather reports and radar maps can tell you the weather before you set off, they still insisted on taking us there rather than postponing or cancelling. We set off at the same time as 2 pontoon type boats (from the same company and which were on a cheaper, shorter tour), and we all seemed to get there at the same time. When the storm came, the pontoon boats with flat bottoms were able to get off the sandbank and reach safety. Because of the type of boat we were on, we couldn't get away and we were grounded for ages until the tide came in. All other boats from this company and other companies had sailed off and disappeared. I felt the situation was very dangerous - we had no life jackets on and were totally soaked and sprayed by the waves in the middle of the ocean, and the boat heaved so much I felt it might capsize. Captain Angela gave us no indication of what was going on - I truly thought we were in a very dangerous situation and she was truly hopeless. No mention of what was going on, when we would get going, where we were going. Scary when all the other boats had gone. After an age , the tide came in sufficiently to free us from the sand bar and we returned home at very high (hold on) speed - later than the cheaper tours in the pontoon style boats. We were all absolutely soaked having been rocked about by the waves and spray, so much so I could wring my shorts out. Given their type of business, they must have known what the dreadful thunderstorm situation was, but they still carried on and didn't cancel. The boat in our tour is simply not fit for purpose - only a flat bottomed boat can navigate the sandbar on the vanishing island not a hulled vessel. We spent about $250 for 3 of us - and saw nothing and wasted a day of our precious holiday in very dangerous situation. We come to HHI every year and do tours, this was the worst.