Today we decided to move the boat from the pier out to the anchorage. There are several reasons that we decided to move the boat today, the first being there was no wind, the second being that we had completed by a tour of the town and purchasing Christmas gifts and the third being that we only tie up to recover from overnight trips.
Today was also the day that I ran the net. So after the net was over, we quickly got the boat ready to move. Ken who was on the boat behind us offered to help by handling lines. This allowed us to leave immediately. Mike had already picked out a spot for us situated between Ehlissia and Mutual Fun.
We maneuvered the boat out and to our desired location and dropped the hook. The biggest question a cruiser has when anchoring around other boats is how much scope does any particular boat have out. With that in mind I radioed Mutual Fun, who reported to me they had about 40 feet out. We were anchored in about 20 feet of water so that was a scope of two to one. We had out a hundred feet which is a scope of 5 to 1. After a quick conversation we decided that we were between two hundred and three hundred feet from a Mutual Fun, Ehlissia chimed in and agreed that we had enough distance.
After anchoring the next step was to drop the dinghy. Mike opted to stay on the boat while I went into town to do some grocery shopping. I went over to Mutual Fun to ask if I could pick them up anything, they decided to come with me since they also needed groceries.
I headed into the dinghy dock, and then into the dock master's office. The dockhand was helpful and found the number for Winn Dixie. I called them and they sent out a van to pick us up. As we moved out front to wait for the van, we saw Eric and Susan sitting next to the little train place. We told them that we were headed to do some grocery shopping and invited them to come with us. They had just realized that it was their twentieth anniversary and exuberantly told us this. So off to the grocery store we went.
After finishing our shopping, of course we headed back to stow our new provisions. Susan had agreed to split a bag of potatoes with us, so I headed ever to drop them off. She invited us to come to cocktails that evening at 6:30 p.m. Eastern Standard Time.
We spent the rest of the afternoon recovering from last night's cocktail party. At 6:30 p.m. we headed over to Ehlissia for another fun evening. Their boat is a center cockpit vessel that is very well designed. We also learned how to use a manual had. We spent the rest of the evening exchanging stories of cruising, family, friends, barfing and of course Marine heads. The party broke up about 11:00 p.m., and we headed back to our boat for a good night's sleep.
It's an amazing what a quantity of alcohol will do for your sleep.
Voyages