By Bill Rauch
Next time you catch a big snapper or grouper off the Whitewater Reef five miles east of the southern tip of Hilton Head Island, give a quiet tip of the cap to Nate Riley.
Nate, 30, who was just starting his charter fishing business 15 months ago, got a call for a sunset gig. He preferred not to ride his motorcycle at night, but after he got the customers ashore and put his boat up for the night, it was pitch dark. On his way home to his high school sweetheart, a distracted driver stole from her and their soon-to-be born son, the baby’s father.
In his 30 years, Nate had lived the Lowcountry life kids from elsewhere only dream of. In his Hilton Head High days, he’d delivered pizzas for the pizza parlor where his sweetheart worked. Moving on, and out onto the waters where he found sanctuary, Nate led jet ski tours in and out of the Calibogue Sound.
Getting seasoned, and further offshore, Nate was a steady on-call mate on a handful of the big offshore boats that work out of Hilton Head. When he could, he slipped out to the Whitewater Reef to try for himself his luck with what was in season.
It is the phone call every parent dreads the most, and wide latitude is given by their friends to those who get it. But Nate’s father, Steve Riley, whom I’ve had the pleasure of knowing and working with for longer than 35 years, is a man who gets things done.
Steve was Beaufort’s Planning Director from 1986 to 1989. From there, Beaufort’s loss, Steve was hired away by Hilton Head where he served as Town Manager from 1994 to 2020. As Town Manager, he was always a friend to Beaufort too.
Here’s how, even from within their unimaginable pain, Steve and his wife Mary Jo are turning a tragedy into a constructive addition to the world around them.
In their grief, Steve and Mary Jo kept coming back in their minds to Nate’s sanctuary: his slipping out to Whitewater to try his luck. But it was Brian Gale at Island Boat Works who really brought the project into focus. They would expand the Whitewater artificial reef. They would get two full-size shipping containers (perhaps more later), remove the doors, cut three foot by three foot holes in the containers’ sides per the South Carolina Department of Natural Resources’ (SCDNR’s) guidelines, and then place them adjacent to the Whitewater artificial reef. The local captains, all friends of Nate’s, will know the spot as “Captain Nate’s Oasis.”
The native fish Nate knew so well need sanctuary too.
The 10K has been raised. The containers have been procured. The 3×3 holes are being cut and there will be a container decorating get-together for Nate’s friends and family later this month. The containers are scheduled to be placed, weather permitting, in November.
When you catch the big one at Captain Nate’s Oasis next year, knowing now how it got there, give a quiet tip of the cap to Captain Nate.
Bill Rauch was the Mayor of Beaufort from 1999 to 2008 and has won multiple awards from the S.C. Press Association for his Island News columns. He can be reached at TheRauchReport@gmail.com.
