Crowded Anchorage

The anchorage off Titusville is pretty big, even with the encroachment of the municipal mooring field -- which is probably illegal, but that's another story. Even so, a few days ago, a small ketch anchored within a little over a boat length away from me -- about 50 feet. It was late in the day, and the wind wasn't expected to shift during the night, so I decided to wait till the next day to see if he'd move.

Unfortunately, the wind did veer a little, and since he was just off my bow, I let out more chain just in case he dragged. It was gusting over 20 and the holding here isn't great, so I was up all night periodically checking on him and even put out fenders just in case. I would have moved during the night had he not been over my anchor at the time.

At about 0900, he lowered his dinghy, and I figured he probably wasn't going anywhere, so I yelled over and asked how long he planned to stay. He answered a few days, so I told him I'd move since he was too close -- which I did in 20 knot gusts later in the morning. He tried to say I didn't need to move, but since he'd already demonstrated bad judgement, I waved him off.

I can't understand why someone would want to anchor that close to another boat with so much space available. Just to give you an idea of how much space, another six boats anchored nearby the following day and a half in the same general area, and none of them came within 100 feet of me or anyone else. The closest two where about 150 feet away. In fact, there's still plenty of room for another couple of dozen boats.

That's still a bit close for me, but I prefer to be alone anyway. Bill, KI4MMZ, told me a few days ago that there's going to be a launch on the 19th, so that might explain the additional boats, or it could just be random. I'm still planning to head down to Key West, but want to finish up all my little projects here first. However, I'm beginning to worry about how crowded it might get down there -- everyone seems to be headed to either Key West or the Bahamas.

I should finish the potholes by the time it rains on Wednesday, and hope to replace the broken bolt sometime along the way. I would have tackled the bolt earlier, but the wood I need to use to block up the engine is buried somewhere in the forecastle, so I decided to rearrange everything first instead of making a bigger mess by just searching for them.

Also, I'm a bit under the weather from the recent cold snap and loss of sleep the other night. Nothing to worry about, but I've had a sore neck and headaches. While I'm used to a sore neck, this is a little worse than normal and interferes with movement. So I'm taking it easy and doing a little recreational reading, currently The King's Own, which is pretty good.

Zoe watch:

She's gotten so used to sleeping next to me when it's cold, that she tends to curl up next to me almost every night now. She hangs out on deck or at the foot of my bunk most of the day and although she curls up at the foot when we go to bed, she's almost always next to me when I wake up.

When it's really cold, I'll drape the sleeping bag over her, but she'll move out from under once she warms up. We've had a few nights in the 30's, but mostly it only gets down to the mid-50's. I image she'll move back to the foot, or even the cabin sole once it finally warms back up. Heck, I might even sleep on the sole if it gets too hot.