Author: Chris McLean

Plum Orchard, Cumberland Island, GA (anchored)

June 23, 2025

We anchor in many beautiful, remote places but very few have an easy way for us to access the land.  Plum Orchard is part of Cumberland Island National Seashore and has a day use dinghy dock.  We’re anchored very close to this dock and we’re the only ones who used it while we were here.

Clearly Poseidon is happy we are here – he threw this little fish into our dinghy as we were tying up at the dock.  John got her back in the water quickly.

Plum Orchard mansion was built in 1890 and has 22 rooms.  Built by an heir to the Carnegie Fortune, it’s now part of the National Park Service.

There are picnic tables around the mansion grounds.  This sign was posted near the one closest to a pond.

A few families still live on the island and the NPS gives tours of the mansion.  It’s 7 miles to the ferry dock, so there’s very little traffic -we saw one vehicle twice and two other NPS trucks.  The roads make great trails through the maritime forests.

A unique feature of Cumberland Island is its population of feral horses.  They roam in herds throughout the island – these were on the grounds of Plum Orchard.

When we were here 3 years ago, we saw many armadillos but today we only saw one. 

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Before heading back on Lailia, we took a quick tour of part of the Brickhill River.

There’s an abundance of birds and other wildlife visible from our deck.

A pod of dolphins, including calves with their mamas, swam by Lailia in the evening.

A juvenile gator swam across our bow, too.

We need to leave early tomorrow morning to get through that skinny water before the tide gets too low, so we’re getting to bed early tonight. 

We’ll be back in Brunswick for the night to pick up our Amazon packages and hull paint.

Brunswick Landing Marina to Plum Orchard anchorage (Cumberland Island), GA (anchored)

June 22, 2025

Plum Orchard anchorage is my happy place: it’s peaceful, beautiful and has loads of really cool critters.  It’s not very far from Brunswick (unless you take the long way).  Guess which way we took?

There’s a stretch of water near Jekyll Island that’s pretty tight during low tide.  That’s when we transited it – super low with jusssttt enough water to keep us moving.

The mud banks were completely exposed and at times it looked as if there was only mud

Roseate spoonbills love swishing their beaks through the muddy water to grab whatever food they can.

It was so low, crab pots were totally out of the water for birds to use as a perch.

Once we got into the sound, John suggested we sail in the ocean and reenter the ICW at St. Mary’s Inlet. 

The wind and current could have been a bit more in our favor but it was still gorgeous. 

We caught a perfect tide on our reentry, though, and we’re able to cruise in on a speeding current

Just inside that inlet is Fort Clinch, which is in a good location to defend Fernanda Beach and Jacksonville.

That incoming tide was definitely in our favor as there can be some shoaling at the entry to this anchorage.  There are 8` tides here which means the shoals are under at least that much water at high tide.

There’s a tree filled with roseate spoonbills just off our bow and it’s perfect here.  I can see the feral horses grazing under the trees and we watched a few small gators swim across the river. 

Even better?  I get to be here with the love of my life.

It’s dark to the east so we could see a million stars.

It was dark enough to watch a Falcon 9 fly by after its launch from Cape Canaveral.

We wound up doing close to 46 nautical miles.  Tomorrow we’ll dinghy over and walk a bit.  

Brunswick Landing Marina, Brunswick, GA – docked

June 21, 2025

Brunswick Landing Marina is one of the best – it’s quiet, folks are friendly, and the town is in easy walking distance.

We were able to refuel, grab showers and go out for dinner and brunch.  Our chart plotter maps are updated, which took multiple overnight hours in the marina wifi.  John also rode his bike to West Marine to order paint for Lailia’s hull.

The marina also has free laundry (one of the very few marinas that does) so we did a couple of loads while we were here.

We fully charged all of our devices as well as a few external power banks and got some meal prep completed.  It’s a good recharge for us.

We’re leaving Sunday to anchor at Cumberland Island for a few nights but we have reservations back at this marina for Tuesday.  We’ll pick up.our paint and an Amazon order and head towards St. Mary’s, GA afterward.

Wahoo River to Brunswick Landing Marina (docked)

June 20, 2025

Boat life can be really relaxing: lots of nature and big sky moments.  There are interesting birds and dolphins galore. 

Today was the first time I spotted alligators in the ICW, even though we traveled this same way in the same season a few years ago. 

John’s got an instinct for navigating.  I don’t.

I don’t love taking the wheel, especially if the water is skinny or if there’s a lot of twists and turns.  Today I was following our previous tracks (on our Garmin) and bumped the bottom.  Captain John got us off pretty quickly but this shook me – especially since my phone app (see the screenshot) showed thin water.  I hadn’t updated our Garmin prior to taking off on Wednesday so our chart plotter wasn’t showing current conditions.

Much of our day was through tight-ish, shoaly rivers at lowish tides.  That’s the part of boat life that’s not at all relaxing.  We bumped a few more times and left a few f-bombs floating on the Little Muddy River (so aptly named).

Last night we made a decision to “not push it” today – our plan was to break the 50 mile trip to Brunswick into two shorter days.  We wound up going to Brunswick today.

We had a great tide and wind in St Simon Sound and flew at 8 knots for a while.  After the slow going in the Little Muddy River, this felt great

Today we went 49.9 nautical miles (over 57 statute miles).  We’re docked at a marina so we can refuel, get rid of trash, grab some ice, and walk around a bit

I am also using the marina wifi to download updated Garmin charts – these are huge files and take forever but at least they should prevent some bumps.

Herb River to Wahoo River, GA (anchored)

June 19, 2025 (posted on the 20th)

This was another long day of travelling through the twisty, windy Georgia chunk of the ICW.  We also had to plan for tide height in Hell Gate which is about 3 hours from here.

Isle of Hope is just before Hell Gate – it’s a lovely name for a peaceful and historic area (Wormsloe Historic Site is nearby – its name doesn’t have the same beauty).

We got to Hell Gate on a good tide and zipped through.  It’s a short way but it’s got just a skinny little channel.

St. Catherine Sound is wide open and nice and deep.

We covered a bit over 43 nautical miles (about 50 land miles) in over 8 hours.   The ride can be monotonous but there’s live entertainment pretty often – the dolphins have been fairly frequent visitors.

Tonight’s anchorage is in a very secluded location – we haven’t seen any boats or houses.  Internet coverage is really spotty, which isn’t a problem unless we want to check weather radar.  Our anchor is secure, though, so I’m not too anxious.

We’ve also seen many of my favorite shore birds – roseate spoonbills.  One flew over us as we anchored yesterday in the Herb River and more were feeding when we left.  Tonight, this big gorgeous pinky was feeding across from where we anchored.  I am going to take it as a happy omen.

Just before bed we had a distant lighting show.  We buttoned everything up before we went to bed just in case it moves our way.

We plan to get closer to Brunswick tomorrow but we’re not going to push it. 

Port Royal Marina, SC to Herb River (near Thunderbolt) GA – anchored

June 18, 2025

We’re heading south on Lailia for a few weeks this summer.  We only have these few weeks before family vacation at the beach and my return to work.  There are a couple of places in Georgia we’re hoping to visit.

Today’s goal was to go a little over 40 miles to anchor in the Herb River, the first place I ever spent the night at anchor.  We’re pretty much in the same spot as we were in 2022 but it’s about 40° warmer. Back in January of 2022 we wound up heading to a nearby marina after a few days because temps were heading below freezing.  Tonight we’re running our air conditioner with our generator.

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We passed sailing lessons in Hilton Head (there were many young sailors).

We saw a few para sailing folks in the Calibogue Sound.

The ICW intersects briefly with the Savannah River, near the Port of Savannah and its big ships.

The new Causton Bluff Bridge is 65 feet high.  One of the spans from the old, lower one still stands – it’s a little disorienting when you first see it, especially since no bridge really seems to be high enough when you look up

We’re tucked into the Herb River tonight.

Tomorrow we go through Hell Gate (not as epic as the name suggests) on our way to anchor near St. Catherine Island, a trip of about 47 miles.

Brooklyn to Manhattan

April 17, 2025

The journey is part of the adventure.  While we were on the subway to Manhattan, a lady across from us decided to practice her singing.  You can hear her in the videos.

John last visited the Museum of Natural History when he was a fifth grader.  I never visited it (I feel as if I need to explain that Philadelphia has very good museums so there was no need to go to NY).

There’s a time machine effect for me by the dinosaur fossils – they transport me back to my earliest science geek days, days when I had a favorite dinosaur…

Spring in NYC is gorgeous – Central Park was lush and green. 

Tulips and daffodils are everywhere, too

We ended our night in the Independent Film Center watching the 1999 documentary Buena Vista Social Club with a Q&A afterwards.  The youngest member of the musician group was present.  There’s a current Broadway Show based on this Cuban musical ensemble

Port Royal, SC to Brooklyn to Queens

April 16, 2025

The best Spring Breaks are ones that truly feel like a break – some travel, some adventures, and time with family.  Spring Break 2025 checked these boxes

John and I flew to NYC to spend some time with Eric, whose Spring Break coincided with mine.  Eric is a perfect host for us – he plans things that he knows we will enjoy.

On our first night, we went to Chinatown in Queens, which is one of the largest Chinatowns outside of Asia. 

After dinner, we went to a pirate-themed rooftop bar. 

This bar was in the flight path of LGA, and every few minutes we were reminded of that.

March 10, 2025

Canyon Lake, TX

We finally found a way to view Canyon Lake (several access points were closed).  

The water level here is very low, so lots of cool rocks are visible.

We also found a bird skull. 

We also found a very short path on the opposite side of the river from our cabin.

Michael and Victoria are the epitome of a loving couple and their wedding was a representation of their joy and love.  We were so happy to share in their celebration.

Canyon Lake, TX

March 9, 2025

After a really delicious breakfast, we walked another trail.  While yesterday’s trail was mostly flat, this one had more inclines.

It was an absolutely gorgeous day to be outside.

I know I am lucky that John gets that I need to look at all of the things (because I had to look at rocks and plants on this trail, too).

You can see how he just waits for me to catch up (this is probably the third time in 20 minutes).  The rocks were pretty cool here, though.

So were the flowers.

We had some time to kill after the trail and prior to picking up Kevin at the airport.  We did a quick walk by the Alamo…

…and stopped at the historic Menger Bar, the place Teddy Roosevelt recruited his Rough Riders.

We moved into our cabin at the wedding venue (also on the Guadalupe River).

We’re part of a family that’s spread out on both coasts (with some members living in the middle).  Like many, we don’t often have the chance to gather, and when we do, it’s usually for somber occasions.  This trip, however, feels like a rare and meaningful gift-a chance to come together for a celebration, surrounded by those we love dearly.