Tonight we're at anchor between Palm Beach and West Palm Beach. It has taken us four weeks to go literally nowhere. This is where we boarded Nellie, gave up on the Bahamas, and decided to do the Keys instead. And now we're back.
Having a fast and stable dinghy allows us to anchor away from the fleet. There are three of us with the same idea occupying the 3/4 mile space between the Palm Beach bridges. That's why it caught us by surprise when a sailboat tried to anchor nearly on top of us. Anchoring too close is like porn--it's hard to define but you know it when you see it. There are two guys on the sailboat. A big sticker on its stern announces that no one is to board without an auction company representative. Hmm, does that make her a foreclosure or drug seizure? On the first anchoring attempt they come so close that Bicki and I laugh while remembering friends in Mexico who, in similar circumstances, armed themselves with a boathook and shot laser-beam stares. The sailboat's second ramming attempt, what else can you call it, was much more fruitful. They got within inches (only Bicki's fending kept the hulls apart) and they managed to grab our anchor chain with their skeg. Fortunately as they moved away the chain dropped free. Without too much additional excitement they successfully anchored--right on top of a clearly marked cable crossing.
We moved a whole 37nm today, quite a feat considering our previous runs. That puts us at 449nm for the trip. DBH
