Let It Blow, Let it Blow, Let It Blow! ! ! ! !

SHIP'S LOG:


(Current Location: Same as yesterday. If you down load Google Earth and insert the Lat/Lon numbers with the N & W at the end rather than at the beginning, it will take you right to the spot)
So why am I still in Lake Worth? Well, a couple of reasons. First, the boat broke. Well, not really broke, just in need of some fixing. Way back when, before the start of this trip, ABISHAG's new inverter had a problem.If a certain wire was connected, it would allow for the use of the 110 volt outlets but would blow the circuit breakers if she was connected to shore power. Cliff and Chuck worked mightily to uncover the problem but we never got it correct before I shoved off. I had to use a small power inverter to run the computer, charge the phone and other various electrical gizmo's. It worked fine until last night when the portable unit gave up the ghost. It just couldn't handle all the use and abuse. So I spent part of the morning on the phone with Chuck reconnecting the offending wire and making sure I got it right. I did and I can charge things using the boat inverter but will have to disconnect the wire every time I hook up to shore power.

The second reason is that the next anchorage is 30 miles away(Boca Raton Lake) and the next anchorage beyond that is 10 miles further and there really is nothing between here and there that one doesn't have to pay for. By the time I got the inverter situation sorted out, it was after 11am and I didn't want to try and push that far in the remains of the day.

Reason three: the reason I didn't want to push and try to make 30 - 40 miles in that a front is moving through and we have had a steady 20 knot breeze with very frequent gusts to 30. I was in no mood for another bash, especially a long one. So I spent another warm, sunny though breeze day here in Lake Worth surround by mansions and obscenely expensive condos. I'll be staying again tomorrow if the winds do not died down.

A strange thing happened to me today, something that has never happened in all the years I have been sailing. I was nowt happy with the spot in which I had anchored last night. It was between two boats and a little tight and There was a crabpot buoy right off my stern to port. The wind shifted from SE to SW and brought that crabpot buoy o so close to my stern i.e. prop and rudder. I didn't like the idea that i might have to go swimming and unhook if it caught so I decided to move. First I tried just to move the boat a few yards further forward but this prove unsatisfactory, bringing to close in my swing to another boat. As I was bringing up the anchor so I could move to another spot, the anchor rode foul itself, creating a knot that need to be undone before setting it again. I move ABISHAG away so that I wouldn't compromise the other boats and took a moment to undue the knot. Then to my shock. the owner of one of the other boats who was down wind from me started screaming and yelling. They only thing I could think of was that he thought I was going to anchor in that spot and he was loudly and rather profanely warning me off. I was totally shocked. It had never happened before. Usually, if someone anchors to close, you talked with them and help them to see that they picked a bad spot. You don't yell and scream. Heck, whenever I anchor near another boat, I always ask the other guy if he is comfortable with the spacing. If not, I move. I did that last night. But this guy really lost it. I just couldn't believe it. When I finally picked a spot and lowered my hook, about 100yards in front of the "Screamer", he finally shut up, probably figuring that he had "scared" me off. I ended up near a home-built steel Chinese junk, "MELODOEN" from Canada. I asked him if he was OK with the spacing and he said it was fine. I said," The guy over there really lost it. I had no intention of anchoring there but he just went off." "MELODEN" respond, " I couldn't figure out what he was upset about. You were fine there." I spent the afternoon reading in the cockpit from which I could look back on "The Screamer," and fantasying about anchoring right next to him just to see what he would say and do. But I just stayed where I was. . . . .though another boat, which came in late in the day, did just that. There was a lot of screaming in after that though I couldn't hear what was said. I do know that the rather large dog on the new arrival to an instant dislike to "The Screamer" and surely seemed to want to take a bit out of him. The new arrival never moved and so far they haven't trade paint nor anymore words.