Uncategorized – Life on Lailia

Happy Boataversary, part 3 (going east to the Bahamas 2022)

Just about 55 miles east of No Name Harbor is Bimini, Bahamas. To get there, boats have to travel across the Gulf Stream, a wide current that moves from the south to the north at about 5.5 mph. A good weather window to cross is one where there is no northern wind component because winds blowing from the north hitting a current from the south causes waves to pile up.

We waited for our good window but also two time constraints: I needed to lead a virtual visit for several days starting March 2 and we had to submit proof of negative Covid tests no longer than 48 hours prior to our arrival.

Winds were set to shift on February 27 which meant that we had time to get settled in Bimini and figure out internet connectivity.

Our window included 17 knot winds from the east.Unfortunately, the waves were still pretty gnarly coming from the south and the east – and while it wasn’t quite as snotty as Port Royal Sound, it was kind of *sporty*

Sporty waves

The water in the Stream is absolutely gorgeous – like blue velvet.

The pretty version

Bimini, all turquoise water on the Bahama Banks side…

…and rocky, wavy ocean on the Atlantic side.

Bahamian stores in small settlements are a lot like New York bodegas, with limited selection replenished weekly.

From Bimini, we crossed the Bahama Banks to the Berry Islands – this was our longest crossing. We left in the dark and navigated around Bimini as the sun rose.

Sails up, heading east to the Berry Islands

Sailing across the bank to Great Harbour

We anchored off Great Harbour for a couple of days – the first time we anchored outside the ICW. Endless sky and water…

It’s kind of a struggle to summarize our months in the Bahamas, where, no matter what, the water was jewel-blue or green. How we met some people who moved from boat neighbors to boat friends to flotilla family.

A quick list of places we visited:

Bimini (North and South)

Great Harbor and Bay of Five Pirates (Berry Islands)

Hoffman Cay (Berry Islands)

Nassau

Highbourne and Allen Cays (Exumas) with their giant iguanas

Shroud Cay and Warderick Wells Parks (Exumas)

Black Point Settlement (Exumas) where we waited for almost two weeks for a good weather window and watched a regatta…I also had to commute to shore to get good Internet at a cafe. My morning routine included climbing this ladder with my laptop in a backpack.

Regatta

Staniel Island, Big Majors and Between the Majors (Exumas) home of the swimming pigs

Nassau again (needed some maintenance stuff)

Spanish Wells (Eleuthera) where we met folks with whom we’d spend the day months later in Florida

Near Lynerd’s Cay (Abaco)

Outside Tillaloo Cay (hit a high spot on low tide) (Abaco)

Hope Town(Abaco) where the pennant line from the mooring ball came off and we drifted into another boat, whose owner we knew from Charleston.

Great Guana (Abaco)

Green Turtle (Abaco)

Manjack Cay (Abaco)

Spanish Cay (Abaco) with lots of thunderstorms around us as we motored there

Great Sale Cay (Abaco) where we watched a waterspout dissipate in our anchorage

Grand Bahama (last stop before crossing to the U.S.)

Three months of cool adventures together:

Three months of cool critter sightings…

And, of course, 3 months of John fixing stuff…

Happy Boataversary, Lailia (part 2, going south-2022)

Charleston to No Name Harbor, FL

Sometimes you have to cast off from the dock.

We left St. Johns Yacht Harbor on January 15, 2022. While John had spent several weeks in the wild with Lailia, I had only been out on her for short cruises here and there.

I feel as if we have a pretty intricate history with Port Royal Marina – we looked at a boat there in early 2019

John stayed there in the fall of 2019 while he waited to get water bled out of Lailia’s fuel injectors.

It was also our first dock heading south. What took 90 minutes by car took an entire day by boat – but going slow meant lots of time to check out birds and dolphins.

Our second day of adventure included a small craft warning.

It was a pretty “snotty” day. Lots of stuff fell down below, a door slammed on my hand, and I vomited. (Snotty is worse than sporty, although I don’t like either.). Port Royal Sound still makes me a little anxious.

We returned to Port Royal Marina and I seriously considered going back to Johns Island.

You can hear my distress

Thankfully, the waves smoothed out by the next day

The first time we spent the night together on anchor was in the Herb River, just outside of Thunderbolt, GA. We tucked into that spot for a couple of days while I did some work on Zoom.

It took about 43 days for us to get to No Name Harbor in Florida where we made our crossing to Bimini.

We probably passed under 40 bridges (there were 10 one day). They went from delightful to annoying as we traveled south.

There were some pretty cool spots to go ashore, too. You can see how we got warner as we moved south.

John also fixed a bunch of stuff, including a water pump as well as other things we don’t even remember.

A normal day of travel for us was around 50 miles;.while we anchored most of the time, we did manage to enjoy a few marinas especially in Fernandina Beach, St. Augustine, and Ft. Lauderdale. Some anchorages were pretty remote while others, like West Palm Beach, were filled with lights and lots of boats.

We stayed in No Name Harbor, just outside of Miami, waiting for a good weather window to make the jump to the Bahamas. While we were waiting, we used the water maker for the first time, replenished provisions and had our boat hull cleaned by divers.

Happy Boataversary, Lailia – part 1, 2019 through 2021)

Ft. Pierce, FL to St. John’s Yacht Harbor, SC

When your husband has a dream of living the boat life, eventually you move aboard.

We’ve lived on Lailia since November 1, 2019; folks say that time flies and it really has.

The day we closed on her (September 6, 2019)

John single-handedly brought her north, just after Hurricane Dorian moved north from Charleston. We didn’t want to close on Lailia until we knew she’d weathered the storm – luckily, Dorian missed her in Fort Pierce and she was good to go.

John sending video updates

Another update

Lailia and John spent a good deal of quality time together, including a few days in Port Royal (at the marina in which we are currently docked) due to some bad fuel.

In a moment of serendipity, I actually filmed John and Lailia as they approached home – I was near enough to the Limehouse Bridge to catch him motoring under it. Lailia was so new, I didn’t even know how to say her name!

There they are!

Once we got her to Charleston, John got her hauled and he painted her (this was the first, but not last, paint job while she’s been ours).

By October 31, 2019, we had donated, sold, discarded, or stored almost everything we owned. We moved aboard on November 1.

It was (and continues to be) an adjustment – there’s movement, noises, little storage. It can be absolutely gorgeous, too

Our elderly puppy learned new tricks and became a boat pup.

That ear!

That first year helped me learn to use a propane stove and how to live with a minimal wardrobe.

…and when Covid seemed to close down everything around us, we had our own little pod in the marina.

Pandemic Cruising

Although we thought about taking off on an adventure in 2020, we learned many marinas were quarantining new boats and the. Bahamas wouldn’t let sailors come ashore so we stayed in place through 2020 and 2021.

There were some really great moments.

Watching a rocket that launched in Florida…

Dolphins in our “yard”

Having our boys join us for a day cruise

And a few learning experiences

Frost on the docks…(it’s slippery)

…as well as rocking and rolling docks (and boats)

So much fun walking on this

…and fog

Plus… raccoons (including one ON the BOAT)

But all of that was offset by daily sunrises in the biggest sky I’d ever seen

Two years of marina living were just a baby step towards getting ready for the Adventure Year of 2022.

…and a Jump

Hilton Head to Port Royal, SC (docked)

June 29, 2025

It was a very short trip back to our home marina today, just a jump across Port Royal Sound. It’s much shorter distance to go by water than by land (it’s about 30 miles from land to Skull Creek) which says more about the geography of the Low Country than anything else.

Other folks left visual reminders of their sailing adventures – one something tragic and awful; the other, something annoying and maybe funny. There’s a lot that can go wrong – usually not terribly so.

Home feels different when we actually travel IN our home. It’s good to know the folks in our marina and to have easy access to groceries…but good vacations are ones that feel as if they’ve ended too early. Getting back into routines can feel great, except when the goal of vacation was to get away from routine. We have a family (non-boat) vacation coming up, but I am already missing waking up at a remote anchorage.

Final approach included a quick stop at the gas dock

Today’s miles: 14 nautical = 16.1 statute

A Hop and a Skip

Thunderbolt Marina, GA to Safe Harbor Skull Creek, Hilton Head, SC (docked)

June 28, 2025

Originally, we planned to be away from Port Royal for about three weeks; we were going to get Lailia hauled out in St. Mary’s so we could get her sanded and then we would paint her hull. St. Mary’s Boatyard is one of the few that allows DIY work. They’re really busy and not very communicative. As we waited to hear from them, we priced out having Lailia painted and found that it was actually better to have someone else do it.

Now that we have “extra days” we can take our time and do shorter trips towards home. We averaged about 40+ nautical miles going south (a pretty full day) but are shooting for 25ish each day going north.

Thunderbolt to Skull Creek Marina in Hilton Head Island 25 nautical miles. We are able to dock here for free as we are members of Safe Harbor.

Summer Saturdays on the water are really busy. It’s very noticeable in places with construction, like the Causton Bluff Bridge. There’s a narrow channel in between barges and an anchored tug that all marine traffic has to use.

Calibogue Sound between Hilton Head and Dafuskie Island is also a busy place during summer Saturdays.

Great day to be on the water

Tomorrow we’ll be back home – another short ride.

As happy as I am to get home (we need some provisions), there’s a Tom Petty lyric* running through my head, “You belong in a boat out to sea, Sail away kill off the hours, You belong somewhere you feel free…”. On this vacation we got to take Lailia out on the ocean and anchor in remote places, where we felt free and having this adventure together.

*the Tim Petty song

High Tides & Marsh Grass Forever

Redbird Creek to Thunderbolt Marina, Thunderbolt, GA (docked)

June 27, 2026

We made a good decision to wait until this morning’s high tide to get through Hell Gate. The rising tide also kept us from bumping on our way out of Redbird Creek.

Hell Gate is only about a mile long but it’s narrow and shallow. The Army Corp of Engineers last dredged in it 2019 – so everyone has to depend on the additional 7 or so feet of water high tide brings. Those big tidal swings bring lots of silty mud with them, which is why annual dredging here would be optimum.

Close-up of Hell Gate -depth at low tide circled (we need more than 5.5 feet)

Green flies are still trying to takeover Lailia but John has been able to fend them off. While they’re annoying, it’s pretty amusing to watch the Captain take them out.

Almost exactly three years ago we docked at Thunderbolt Marina while we waited for a cable to repair our autopilot. They have a huge boatyard that does repairs on huge boats – their huge boatworks building is visible from a distance and is a good landmark.

Our Lailia is dwarfed by many of the other vessels here.

We’re going to take it easy again tomorrow: instead of going straight home, we have reservations in a marina in Hilton Head.

Low Tide is Only Fun When it’s the Brewery

Crescent River to Redbird Creek, near Keller, GA (anchored)

June 26, 2025

Much of today was against the current and on an ebbing tide, so it felt like slow going.

We traversed Creighton Narrows with enough water. There were huge pods of dolphins there, including calves.

Weirdness with this marker and pole.

Green flies were a constant pest today. They can bite (and if a bug is gonna bite, it’s gonna bite me). John was able to use his a-salt gun (it shoots table salt) to defend us from this menace.

No hyperbole – he took down at least 60 of them. By the time we anchored, salt and downed flies were everywhere.

Tides were at their lowest point exactly when we left the ICW to get to our anchorage. Even though the charts SAY there’s enough depth, we bumped and had to back out a couple of times before John got us in. We marked the chart, which will hopefully assist other boaters.

Once we got past the shoaling, the creek deepened into a pretty nice spot. The flies were still trying to hang out with us tonight. John’s got the generator running the air conditioner so I’m literally chilling down here in our cabin. He’s in the cockpit keeping the homestead safe from a greenfly attack while listening to music.

This anchorage is the closest one south of Hell Gate. We’ll head out on a rising tide tomorrow so we won’t have to deal with the shoal at the mouth of this creek or with the skinny water at Hell Gate. We have reservations at a marina tomorrow night. We’re not in a huge hurry to get home (but I hope we move faster than we did today).

Miles today – 32 nautical = 36.9 statute

Carry Me Home on the Ocean

Brunswick Landing Marina to Crescent River, near Valona, GA (anchored)

June 25, 2025

The Little Mud River (aka Little Muddy Creek) is part of our route today. There’s not a lot of water there even on high tides and high tides today aren’t on our side.

We did some more boat math at breakfast this morning at a restaurant in Brunswick that suited us. Maggie Mae’s owner is proud to tell us her restaurant has been serving for 32 years..

Our decision about Lil’ Muddy Creek was made as we were in St. Simon Sound – we would avoid it by heading out into the ocean and coming in Doboy Sound, which is north of the creek.

Heading out to sea

One difference between the ocean and the ICW is that there aren’t waves on most of the ICW. The waves weren’t bad today, though.

A similarity is we need to be aware of depths and shoaling. We have to use marked passages to get in and out of inlets.

The passage into Doboy is pretty well marked; north of the market below, the water is so shallow that there are breakers.

Breakers on our way into Doboy Sound

We passed Sapelo Island on which one of the last Gullah community lives.

We stayed in the Crescent River anchorage almost exactly 3 years ago on our way north to the Chesapeake.

As with our last time here, there’s a lot of natural entertainment. It’s fairly wide open, so sunsets are gorgeous.

Panorama of this anchorage

My favorite part is the huge pods of dolphins that just seem to be everywhere. They would swim around Lailia and we could hear them after it got dark.

We just sat in the cockpit and enjoyed the breeze and the show.

The ICW is used to transport barges. We watched this one navigate past us through the Creighton Narrows.

Today’s miles- 43.9 nautical – 50.5 statute

Tomorrow we plan to do a shorter hop to an anchorage just before Hell Gate. We’ll spend the night so we can get through that passage on a good tide in the morning. From there, we’re planning to head towards Thunderbolt, GA.

Happy Boataversary, part 3 (going east to the Bahamas 2022)November 8, 2025
Happy Boataversary, Lailia (part 2, going south-2022)November 4, 2025
Happy Boataversary, Lailia – part 1, 2019 through 2021)November 3, 2025
…and a JumpJune 30, 2025
A Hop and a SkipJune 29, 2025

Boat Math

Plum Orchard to Brunswick Landing Marina, Brunswick, GA (docked)

June 24, 2025

If low tide is at 2:45 pm and we travel at 5 knots average, when do we need to leave the anchorage to get through Jekyll Island which is about 20 miles from here to make sure there’s enough water?

We left a little before 7:00 and made it through pretty easily.

To get to Brunswick Landing, we had to travel through St. Simon Sound. There’s a small, deactivated lighthouse in the tip of Little Cumberland Island that’s almost invisible due to the sand dunes around it.

Shrimp boats were in our in the sound, too. The boats are followed by lots of birds and dolphins.

We were moving, they were moving

Higher tides make a huge difference in Jekyll Creek, so traveling today was a lot less nerve-wracking. Seven- and eight-foot tides move a lot of water!

As we got closer to Brunswick we could see a Coast Guard helicopter hovering. Closer in we were able to watch the training activities of baskets and swimmers being lowered from the chopper to a Coast Guard vessel below it. These are some precision activities – the helicopter seemed to stay in place throughout the entire activity.

We’re tucked into Brunswick Landing Marina for the night. Tonight we’re doing more boat math to decide where we’re going to stop tomorrow. Little Mud River isn’t fun on a low tide.

It’s been a really hot day and our engine also throws off a lot of heat. We’re able to hang out in the air conditioned lounge and stream some Netflix while we wait for Lailia’s air conditioner to cool her down.

We traveled about 27.3 nautical miles (just under 31.5 statute miles) today.

Peaceful, Easy Feeling

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.

Armadillo

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

Dinghy ride

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.

Swimming across the river

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.