02/06/2025 ICW Day 37 : Moor the Merrier

Our island camp on Talbot last night was spectacular- in the trees meant no sand in the tent and a dry rain fly in the morning. We had to skedaddle in the morning because the tide was going out - fast. We had pulled the boat out about 7 vertical feet above the low tide line, and yes, it was still there the next day - but we had to drag it way down to a geological feature that was new to us: a muddy drop off.

I feel like Janet and I are getting more accustomed to being we or stepping in mud. Honestly, I don’t think much of it anymore, whereas when we started this trip, I would try to avoid that kind of stuff. I certainly have changed; not sure about Janet.

We decided to try something new: staying in a marina and sleeping on the boat. We had slept at anchor, toed to mooring buoys, and tied to mangroves, but we haven’t tried sleeping tied up to a dock.

It turns out that is a lot more social because other boats are tied up to the same platform. I selected our neighbors based on the size of their boat - hoping we would be in their lee. Dot came out right away to talk to us, and her husband Wolfgang eagerly emerged and told us about his bike trip on Camino Santiago. He had a high quality, old school bike, but you might not know it at first if you saw all of the rust. I got the feeling that they were eager to talk to someone other than each other 😉

I also met a woman named Chris who told us about their trip Southbound on the ICW. They had “fouled their prop” - meaning they got tangled up in those crab traps we showed you a photo of last week. That meant they didn’t have a motor. So they were anchored out and the wind came up at night. This blew them around and they were dragging their anchor. They had to call to come help them for 3 hours in the night. I asked why they didn’t leave, and they couldn’t because the drawbridge didn’t have a person in it… so they were stuck.

Janet and I occasionally get a little jealous of the full size sailboats that pass us, but when you consider the realities, we can take our mast down in 10 seconds, if we get stuck on mud, we push out, our boat can sail as fast (or in these waters, faster) than the other sail boats, if we “foul a prop,” we pull it out and fix it fast, we can maneuver quickly so we are less likely to crash into things… and if we do, it probably wouldn’t harm the other person. Also, we are allowed in places where motors are prohibited.

With all these advantages, we do get some attention. One guy said he wanted to sleep in a tent, and we offered to trade. He kind of disappeared after that. We still have to pay by the foot at this marina. At $2.50 a foot, it’s about $50 for a night, but we had a great shower, Wi-Fi, power, and Janet was eyeing the coffee machine in the air conditioned boater’s lounge. Staying here was Janet’s idea, and it was a good one. Pretty deluxe!!