This is a first: I dragged anchor from one state clear into another. It wasn’t much of a drag, just a bit of movement during the reset at current change. Since I was only about a boat length into Florida, it was enough though to give me a catchy title for this post. A brisk wind came up near high water and my interstate excursion used up the comfort zone between me and a moored boat so I was up before breakfast laying out a second anchor. The wind had eased by the time I finished eating so I retrieved both sets of gear and moved up the river where I’ll now go back to riding on an upstream and downstream anchor to avoid a repetition.
It was a week ago today that we arrived in Saint Marys. A fellow stopped alongside to welcome me to town before I even finished anchoring. I asked if he was based here or just passing through. “Just passing through”, he said, “but I’ve been here passing through for two years now.” I’m beginning to see that it’s that kind of place.
Lee and Lynn moved on Saturday to spend a week in Saint Augustine with friends. I’d thought of using that as an excuse to go on down and spend a bit more time with them before they make the jump to the Bahamas. I was tied to the town dock ready to leave as soon as some mail arrived at the visitors center. The fellow who runs the snack shop at the town dock where you can also buy ice had just told me that they are glad to run boaters up to stores for errands. He gave me his phone number and asked me to pass it on to other boaters in the anchorage. This is a very charming town. Aside from the people, it is at the end of the road so there is no traffic passing through to somewhere else. It has a wonderfully relaxed feel and a hint of life before automobiles.
When we came up the harbor for the first time, I saw a familiar looking steel boat of Dutch construction and concluded that it was a sister ship to one that was in a driveway just around the corner from us in South Portland and on a mooring near mine. I was putting some book purchases aboard when someone came up and said that she had noticed I was from Portland and that her boat was also. I asked if hers was the yawl and it turns out to be the very same boat. That led to lunch where I learned that she has been a mate on oil tankers and container ships as well as research vessels. We discovered that we know many of the same people having been in nearby orbits for decades without running into each other.
She made the classic mistake of putting too much of her money into the initial boat purchase so she has been living aboard here about as long as I’ve been on this cruise while she figures out how to get the boat in shape for cruising. She was thus able to tell me a lot more about the local scene. For example, the houseboat moored near me turns out to be the clubhouse for the very informal local yacht club which has gatherings every Saturday.
By the time we finished lunch, the wind had come up and another boat had docked in front of me so I wasn’t eager to leave. She has a truck so I accepted an offer to accompany her on a food store run and pick up a few items, some of which got turned into dinner while we figured out more people we knew and traded stories about ships that we had both sailed on. It’s raining today so I’m content not to go anywhere and I’m not nearly as inclined to leave as I was yesterday at this time.
It was a week ago today that we arrived in Saint Marys. A fellow stopped alongside to welcome me to town before I even finished anchoring. I asked if he was based here or just passing through. “Just passing through”, he said, “but I’ve been here passing through for two years now.” I’m beginning to see that it’s that kind of place.
Lee and Lynn moved on Saturday to spend a week in Saint Augustine with friends. I’d thought of using that as an excuse to go on down and spend a bit more time with them before they make the jump to the Bahamas. I was tied to the town dock ready to leave as soon as some mail arrived at the visitors center. The fellow who runs the snack shop at the town dock where you can also buy ice had just told me that they are glad to run boaters up to stores for errands. He gave me his phone number and asked me to pass it on to other boaters in the anchorage. This is a very charming town. Aside from the people, it is at the end of the road so there is no traffic passing through to somewhere else. It has a wonderfully relaxed feel and a hint of life before automobiles.
When we came up the harbor for the first time, I saw a familiar looking steel boat of Dutch construction and concluded that it was a sister ship to one that was in a driveway just around the corner from us in South Portland and on a mooring near mine. I was putting some book purchases aboard when someone came up and said that she had noticed I was from Portland and that her boat was also. I asked if hers was the yawl and it turns out to be the very same boat. That led to lunch where I learned that she has been a mate on oil tankers and container ships as well as research vessels. We discovered that we know many of the same people having been in nearby orbits for decades without running into each other.
She made the classic mistake of putting too much of her money into the initial boat purchase so she has been living aboard here about as long as I’ve been on this cruise while she figures out how to get the boat in shape for cruising. She was thus able to tell me a lot more about the local scene. For example, the houseboat moored near me turns out to be the clubhouse for the very informal local yacht club which has gatherings every Saturday.
By the time we finished lunch, the wind had come up and another boat had docked in front of me so I wasn’t eager to leave. She has a truck so I accepted an offer to accompany her on a food store run and pick up a few items, some of which got turned into dinner while we figured out more people we knew and traded stories about ships that we had both sailed on. It’s raining today so I’m content not to go anywhere and I’m not nearly as inclined to leave as I was yesterday at this time.
