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.
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.
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!
Life on Lailia 