Preparing for Weather in Boot Key Harbor

Day 28: Sunday, March 20, 2016

Our closest neighbor - I mean close

We are now in a “Sit Out the Weather” mode.  We awoke to calm waters but, as predicted, that changed as the day progressed.  We enjoyed a pancake and bacon breakfast.  We have now used our last prepackaged pancake mix so that selection had been deleted from the menu.

We spent the morning reading and tinkering around the boat.  Our new friends, Mike and Frankie came by bearing gifts.  Since they are pulling their boat out of the water and heading home, they brought us a package of fresh chicken thighs, two beautiful pork chops, a roll of summer sausage, and a bag of fresh asparagus.  We have ice in our cooler at this point so we will be able to keep these for great grilled meals over the next two days.

We prepared our typical lunch with me having a soft taco and Janine had a real treat after all the PBJ’s, tuna salad, compliments of her friend, Lena.

After lunch, we made a trip to the marina to take a much needed warm shower.  They have probably15 separate shower rooms and all but 2 were in use when we got there.  As we approached the shower house, we encountered a 92 year old gentleman who wears a captain’s hat. I heard someone address him as Captain Jack.  We entered into a casual conversation and while talking, he produced a beautiful flower that he gave to Janine.  She gave him a grateful hug and we went on to the showers. 

Interesting Jelly Fish

After my shower, I went to the office to check on our place in the waiting list for mooring balls.  The lady was on the phone telling one of the staff that she had a report that “hobos” were using a shower and holding the door for their friends to use.  The doors are electronic key locked so somehow they got one open.  Janine said that she heard the confrontation with the staff member and the guy could not come up with appropriate keys and/or identification to verify that he was in fact a paid guest

at the marina.  So…

We bought a bag of ice and headed back to Second Wind. The winds were building by this time and they were swinging from the south to the south west to the west.  As that happened, the boats all around us swung on their anchors as well.  As the wind blew from the west, our boat swung and lined up with a large house boat probably 30 feet behind us.  That is enough room if the anchors hold, however, if we begin to drift, we have a significant problem.  His boat is anchored in such a way that it swings very little hence the close proximity.  As it turned out, that wind direction remained all night long but our anchors held into the night.  Our chart plotter has an “Anchor Drag Alarm” that sounds if we drift past a predetermined distance.  I set it to 10 feet longer than our anchor road so it awaken us if we begin to move.  We would both feel more at ease if we had a mooring ball on which to tie. 

For dinner, we grilled the chicken thighs and they were really good.  We accompanied them with garlic mashed potatoes.  Earlier in the day, we baked a Bake Packer blob spice cake that we enjoyed for desert. 

We climbed into bed around 9:00 in our clothes in case we needed to be up solving a drifting problem in the middle of the night.   The winds had moderated a bit as we turned in.