Chris McLean

Bumpy Start to a Friend-Full Weekend

January 12-15, 2025

We had a couple of calm days but the wind kicked up bit Friday afternoon – and so did some fog.

The bounce wasn’t as bad as Tuesday’s and Wednesday’s crud but…

A little rocky

The secret to an easier evening comes in a little box (and bonus – it helps me get to sleep even earlier).

It was still pretty breezy on Saturday although the wind clocked around enough to calm the ICW down. The best part of Saturday was getting to hike with Amy and Bo, plus the group they were camping with.

The four of us were last together before Covid, when Bo and John joined Amy and me on an IB workshop trip in the Tahoe area. I’m hoping that this summer’s Tahoe workshops have enough participants so we can all return to California.

We hiked a little over 4 miles on Diamond Back Rattlesnake and Maritime Forest trails at Hunting Island Beach.

We got some extra time with them at Shell Ring Brewery – it was cold and windy, but the fire helped a little.

We had Sunday dinner with our friends Chris and Colin, who made their annual visit back to their former home in Hilton Head. Our last dinner together was in December of 2022 in Vero Beach.

Beaufort celebrates Martin Luther King Jr. with a huge parade – we learned this today when we tried to have brunch in town and found the streets were blocked off. The weather was glorious so the short walk into town was pleasant. January days when temperatures hit the upper 60s are gifts.

Colder weather is on its way but I enjoyed as much time outside as I could today. I saw one of the larger gators (probably a good 11+ footer) this afternoon while I did a couple of loops at Crystal Lake Park on Ladys Island. I rarely walk in this park because I don’t usually see much there – it’s peaceful and it’s on the way to the grocery store, but apparently I’ve just not been there when this buddy was out.

An osprey was also hunting at the lake

Two years ago (January 15, 2022) we set out on our big adventure; we spent our first two nights docked in this marina. I don’t really know what that means except in a weird way, I guess we’ve been fortunate enough to return to people and places that bring us happiness, and we get to do this together.

Holy Heck! That Wind!!!

January 8-9, 2024

2024 has definitely brought some tumultuous weather. Today brought the worst weather we’ve experienced since we have been on Lailia.

Winds were so high today that schools moved to e-learning: all work was done online from home. Since students were still learning, we won’t have to make up the day.

The forecast was for high winds and even higher gusts, with the worst coming from the south-southeast – the kind that whomps us terribly. There’s nothing about being in cruddy weather that appeals to me; John’s really different, though!

I spent Tuesday night in a hotel while John stayed in Lailia.

John is really, really tough and clearly has a really strong stomach!

He has really good timing and balance, too, which he needed to get off Lailia while she was hobby-horsing this afternoon.

John’s cockpit video

Out of an abundance of caution, our marina shut off electric to the dock this afternoon, so I added another night to my hotel stay.

Since the wind clocked around, John felt it was ok to leave Lailia tonight and join me in the hotel. When I went to pick him up this afternoon we walked to Lailia – walking on a moving dock with waves breaking and boats slamming into the water was pretty exciting.

Lailia has the white hull

Unfortunately, our davits have been damaged by all of the slamming action. We may lose the dinghy but our fingers are crossed!

Our dinghy flopping around

This junky weather is moving north so tomorrow we should be back normal…although more strong winds are forecast for this weekend.

All the Weathers

January 5-7, 2024

We really love so many things about living in Beaufort. The town is right on the ICW and filled with beautiful old homes. There’s a nice little downtown area with good restaurants.

We were hoping to get a table at the Old Bull Tavern if we got there right when it opened. The only open seating was out in their courtyard where a few heaters were in but as soon as we were seated they built a fire in their fire pit. We still had to wear our jackets but it was worth it.

Dinner was delicious – we learned from the owner that all of their meals use no more than five ingredients which keeps the freshness of their food at the forefront.

We struck up a conversation with three women also were seated in the courtyard: a woman and her two daughters-in-law. They stopped in Beaufort for dinner on their way from the Charleston airport to Savannah. The mother-in-law was originally from Denmark, one daughter was from Australia (but lives in Bali) and the other is from Colorado. The three had traveled from California, where the mother-in-law lives, as part of their extended Christmas vacation.

As happens a lot in the winter, the weather abruptly changed overnight.

I woke up around 6:00 on Saturday morning because Lailia was rocking like crazy. It wasn’t terrible – until it was. I had to make a quick exit to land.

27 mph gusts from the southeast? Nope! Exited before it got even worse.

Watch the second mast from the right – it’s Lailia moving all over the place 🤢

John stayed back to tighten lines. Our boat neighbors don’t live aboard but were called by the marina to secure their boat (their mast is right next to ours in the video). John assisted them with some lines before joining me to go to the gym and brunch.

All the wind knocked a bunch of Spanish moss out of the trees. While it’s normally silvery-gray, it greens up when it’s hydrated.

By the time we returned, the wind had shifted enough that Lailia was much more steady.

Even better, by 2:00PM we had sunshine and temps in the low 70s (it’s great to live in the Low Country!). I wanted to play around with my new camera, so I headed out to Cypress Wetlands while John watched the Vilanova game.

Playing with my new camera at Cypress Wetlands

Even stronger winds are forecast for later this week. John added lines off Lailia’s starboard to kind of spiderweb us in. Hopefully, this will minimize us bouncing around too much. I may spend a night or two in a hotel if it’s awful (wind from the south-southeast whomps us hard; there’s not as much fetch from other directions).

On January 7 of last year we docked in Johns Island after a year of travel. We weren’t certain how 2023 would play out – where we would be or what kind of work I would be doing. I don’t think we ever thought about Beaufort/Port Royal as a home port – but here we are!

It’s a New Year

Port Royal, SC

Can’t beat fireworks at 9:00PM – especially ones we can watch from Lailia’s bow! It’s a fine way for us to say goodbye to 2023 (and not deal with traffic).

Whatever you do January 1 sets the stage for the whole year.

If that’s true, our year will be magical…

Full of sunshine and nature…

We’ll take time to notice small things…

And keep clear of spookiness…

This tree could be in the Wizard of Oz woods

And we’ll enjoy tasty food…

Here’s hoping that 2024 brings joy and love to all.

Christmas Adventures 2023

December 21-30, 2023 (To Birmingham, Alabama and Beverly Hills, Florida)

Winter break started with an early dismissal on the 21st. The afternoon was warm and sunny, we took a quick trip to Hunting Island. How wonderful it is to live in the Low Country, where a December beach walk only requires a light jacket!

We still had a few errands to run before we headed to see our boys in Alabama. Even though my alarm was off, I was up early enough to see the sunrise. The water was glassy-calm.

Apparently the dolphins were also happy to celebrate Friday. They put on quite a show!

Last year we were moored in Vero Beach at Christmas. We had seen our boys at Thanksgiving and thought we would be okay not being with them at Christmas – but we really, really missed them. There was no doubt that we would all be together for Christmas this year.

Eric and his friend Aida flew into Atlanta, which was on our way to Birmingham. We timed everything well so we could arrive in ATL at approximately the time Eric’s flight was to land.

The flight was a little delayed, which wasn’t terrible. What was terrible was that the delayed flight sat on the tarmac for over an hour, just waiting for an open gate.

Getting some extra time with Eric was worth it, though.

Time with our kids never seems to last long enough.

We spent Christmas Eve at the studio. We played a drawing game with charcoal.

Aida and our family with one of our charcoal designs.

John and the kids also played darts.

Christmas day dinner was at Kevin’s boss’s farm. Miniature goats are amazing!

So much to say!

A few weeks ago I learned that when it gets cold in Florida, manatees move into the warm springs that feed the Crystal River. These springs are about five hours from Beaufort (and Atlanta) so it seemed like a perfect detour home.

We wound up driving about 8 hours from Birmingham to an Air BNB in Beverly Hills, FL.

I had a lot of time on that drive to rethink the plan. Eight hours is just a really, really long time to sit in a car! I was also concerned that we wouldn’t see many manatees.

The ride was worth it.

Since temperatures were in the upper 40s and lower 50s, hundreds of manatees were in the 72° springs.

Almost a parade heading in and out of the spring

Fortunately, the ride home is much shorter than the ride from Birmingham.

Penn State played Ole Miss at noon, so we stopped in Brunswick, GA so John could catch the game. We had been at Silver Bluff a little over a year ago, so this seemed like a great spot to hang for a while.

Here’s to ending 2023 with love and adventures.

Getting Ready to Move

Cleaning Laila’s tender

Day 356: South Carolina (Last night of our adventure, for now)

Newport River, GA to Hickory Bluff (near Hilton Head), SC (anchored)

January 6, 2023

Hell Gate can be challenging because of (lack of) depth. We made it with no issues.

Last anchorage for a while. We love this spot off of Bear Island.

Day 355: Long Day (but worth it)

Jekyll Island, GA to North Newport River, GA (anchored)

January 5, 2023

Fog. Again. At least this time it only lasted until 8:30 or so. Although we usually eat breakfast when we’re on the way, today we ate at anchor which allowed time for the fog to lift.

Skies were clear until we got to St. Simon Sound – we had patches of fog with sunny spots in between them. The water was like glass, too.

I stood on the bow to keep an eye out for crab pots and channel markers since John was using our Garmin and we could see through the fog patches.

Traveling through some fog

This fog was surreally beautiful.

St. Simon Sound – the water is like glass

We traveled a good 54 miles yesterday, even though the fog slowed us down a few times.

We anchored in a wide open space just off the ICW. There are few trees here so we have an incredible view of the sky. We anchored just as the sun was setting and the moon was rising.

Anchorage

We’ll have to go through Hell Gate tomorrow, so we have to make sure we catch a higher tide. We’re planning to anchor in South Carolina tomorrow.

Day 354: Sigh…

Fernandina Beach, FL to Jekyll Island, GA (anchored)

January 4, 2023

NO fog this morning! We also had electricity enough to use the coffee pot and the toaster, which is a a treat.

We crossed into Georgia pretty quickly after leaving the marina; this feels like progress as we have been traveling north in Florida since the 28th.

Although we have had lots of fog on this part of the trip, the water has been pretty smooth. During our crossing of the Cumberland Sound, the wind was against the tide so we had some choppy water. I had forgotten how uncomfortable this feels (but my stomach reminded me).

Tug boat and a barge in Cumberland Sound

As soon as we were out of the Sound, the water calmed down again. We were making great time with plans to go between 50 and 60 miles. Crossing St. Andrews Sound was easy – we were definitely on a roll!

In the last few days, there’s often been an “and then… moment.” Our “and then moment” today was when we turned into the Jekyll River and started hearing thunder. The forecasted cold front was closing in; the Coast Guard was issuing high wind alerts along the entire area from Charleston Harbor to Fernandina Beach.

We did a quick turnaround so we could get to an anchorage to wait out the front. As I got the anchor ready to drop, John looked for enough depth for Lailia.

We watched the front head right over us – as bad as it looked, there wasn’t a lot of wind and the rain was steady but not torrential most importantly, though, there was no lightning, which is always a good thing!

There was enough rain to discourage us from hauling the anchor again, especially since the front was moving in the direction we were. We settled in, ate, and finished watching Wednesday. It’s frustrating that we only traveled half as far as we had hoped but being safe is our priority.

We’ll head out as soon as we can tomorrow morning and get as far as possible.

One wonderful thing about this anchorage – at about midnight, there were owls calling.

Day 353: We Can See Clearly Now

Tolomato River to Fernandina Beach Municipal Marina, FL (docked)

January 3, 2023

Determined to not repeat last night’s low tide escapade, we hauled anchor before 8:00 AM even though there was a bit of fog. I stood on the Lailia’s bow to look out for crab pots and any other potential hazards until the fog broke up.

We never knew that fogbows existed until yesterday and now we have seen quite a few. Maybe that’s 2023 letting us know adventures are still not over.

Fortunately, the fog lifted pretty early and we had an easy trip today.

At one point we had such strong currents that we were flying along at close to 10 knots. In general, we are pretty happy when we get 7 knots, so this was great.

Although we usually grab a mooring ball at Fernandina Beach, today we wanted to fill our water tank and grab some fuel. The dockhands at this marina are really great – after we fueled, they walked us back to our spot.

Last night’s misadventure left behind a little souvenir – a line showing where Lailia was resting on the mud last night. Since that wasn’t our favorite moment of the trip, John scrubbed it off.

We haven’t seen our friends Steph and Rick in probably 28 years; they just moved to Fernandina Beach, though, so we spent some time trying to catch up. If our last trip north through Florida’s theme was breweries, this trip’s theme has been family and friends.

Tomorrow we have to cross Cumberland, St. Andrew’s and St. Simon’s Sounds, big bodies of water that have the potential to be sporty if the wind is up. There’s also a big front moving in from the west that will bring some nasty rain and wind. It’s good that we had a good day today to give us a bit of a break.