Our Norwegian neighbours, a father and daughter duo, had a long night last night. They were up pretty much the whole time either talking on the cell phone or working on the boat. They seem like nice folk so I hope everything is OK. As for us, we did another weather download early this morning and it still looks good for a crossing tomorrow, the wind will be slightly on the nose but there will be no northern component to it so the seas should be fairly stable, then on Saturday we will have a beam reach all the way to Spanish or Green Turtle Cay. So our tasks today have been: get some more moolah out of the bank, re-fill the water tanks, fill the fuel tanks both below and above decks, and pay our bill at the marina before setting off on the short trip to Peanut Island.

It was a very short trip down the waterway but it was almost one that we backtracked upon. Indeed, we almost didn't get away from the dock as Barb rolled her ankle on something on the deck and took a tumble. As I write this at the anchorage she is seated in sedate splendor with her foot up in the salon, hoping that it won't swell up too much. When we approached the anchorage areas we re-discovered the odd disreputable anchorage and mooring area immediately in front of some of the most prestigious marinas in the Palm Beach Riviera region. I don't think that I can remember any place with as many clearly abandoned boats, sunk boats, and bums living aboard boats all in the same spot of water. Then we remembered that when we stayed at one of these marinas last year we were told that we should stay inside the barricade at night since right outside were crack houses and brothels. That might explain the presence of the liveaboard bum types in their derelict boats in the anchorage.

We went into where there is supposed to be an anchorage but found that there was a large dredge barge and all its equipment including hundreds of meters of pipe floating in the area so there was limited space. We explored only to run aground. Bless Polly Perkins and her big prop for she was able to back us off without too much difficulty but it did make us take a little more care. This is the first time on the trip that we can see the bottom at the anchorage, which is more than a little neat. We proceeded a mile further down the ICW without coming across any place so we headed back toward the north side of Peanut Island only to discover that it is way too shallow for us. After getting some advice from both the USCG Aux and a passing yachtie we went back to try our luck again at the south anchorage and managed to find a spot just out of the channel in about 10' of water at low tide. Setting the hook we have decided to stay here and radioed our pals aboard Troubadour that they could anchor ahead of us since they have a keel/centreboard arrangement on their boat and could get by with a lot less water.

Tied up at the docks on Peanut Island are two Tall Ships, and that is the photo on today's post. One of them is the Bounty, the ship built in Lunenburg NS for the movie Mutiny on the Bounty and subsequently passing through a series of owner's hands. We last saw her when as the representative of St Petersburg Florida she was at the Tall Ships gathering in Halifax this past summer, and now here she is in Palm Beach. The other is the Lynn and the two of them make a really nice scene alongside.

We waited aboard until Troubadour arrived to make sure that they got set up which they did at aound 12h30. Barry is going to find out if there are any slips at the marina at West End, just in case the weather acts up while we are transiting or is going to be more unpleasant than forecast for Saturday. Neither of us think that it would be much fun to ride out any bad weather in the lee of one of the Cays. Once they were all settled in we put the dingy in the water and had a brief visit with them and then took Peri ashore to the Island for a walk. I wonder if he remembers having been here before.