It was windy and boisterous on the mooring ball, or can, today. At one time, I saw a touch of spray come over the bow, while on a mooring ball! It was getting to be too much, and I had no way to dinghy in. Looking at the weather, the wind forecast said it would be more of the same the next few days with one model suggesting gusts up to 31 knots. This wasn't working for me, so I called the marina late this afternoon and got the last slip. They said seven boats came in today.

This morning I tried to use my Lehr propane motor with a camp canister. Even though it plugs in with a different hose in a different spot, it also leaked, from the same earlier spot. So that meant no dinghy, which pretty much forced me to take a slip anyway. Now the thing is, I tied to the ball the way St Augustine recommends. But in this windy situation, that was a big problem, because I couldn't get my lines off the can. With so much wind and waves, I couldn't hold the line with my hands, and struggled to pull the boat even a little bit closer to the can. Sailing gloves were necessary just to avoid rope burn. Using the engine and laying on my stomach on the bow hanging out over the water as much as I dared, after some bit of effort, I got the lines off, without using my knife.

At the slip, the boats on both sides of me were interested in my comings and goings. The boat to port came from Maine and is still trying to get south. The ICW is a brown color from all the vegetation, and not very clear, so they were hoping to see some clear blue water soon. They will find it as soon as they leave the ICW.

My sister ship is here in a slip slightly diagonal to me, on the same pier, but opposite side. He had a few anchor dragging horror stories, including a 3am snorkel in the ICW to deal with prop/shaft issues. I don't think the ICW is polluted since there are plenty of birds and dolphins here eating fish, but it doesn't look very inviting. In fact, I recently googled if it was even okay to go in the water. Next to that Islander 36 was another Islander 36. It was not in good shape, with its destroyed bow pulpit missing and laying on the dock, and I didn't even recognize that it was my model boat. The boats have some changes over the years as they were made, so I have an above deck anchor locker that they do not have, but still, even with all the cruising hardware, I should have recognized it.

So now I am sitting here in the calm of my slip, listening to the wind, and the slapping of other boat halyards, refreshed from a hot shower with running water. After so many months of being anchored, I felt a strong urge to turn on my anchor light as the sun set. And tomorrow morning, the first thing I will think about when I get up is turning it off.