May 28
These homes are on a narrow strip of land between the ICW and the ocean. Talk about property value! We anchored out in St. Augustine right in front of the famous fort. Unfortunately, it was dusk when we arrived and both anchorages north & south of the bridge were quite full when we arrived. We eventually found a spot with the help of another captain who radioed us with anchoring info in this area. We threw out the anchor and watched for a few hours to be sure we were holding. Everything seemed fine, so we went to bed. Suddenly, I was awakened out of a deep sleep by pounding on the wall behind our bed. Very weird, since we were on the hook. Tried to awaken the Captain who would not be aroused. Again, the pounding. So, I went up into the salon, glanced at the clock (it was 3am), and looked out back through the salon doors. What a shock! There was another cruiser looming behind us with her bow pulpit right against our swim platform. Luckily, our dinghy was acting as a bit of a buffer; even so the other captain was having some difficulty holding our boat off his. Quickly awoke the Captain (well, not too quickly; he was still in a deep sleep) and we both threw on some clothes and raced up to the aft deck. Happily, the other captain was in good humor about it; his attitude was that these things happen with boats. We then started the engines, weighed anchor, & moved away from the other boat. Question now was where we should anchor. We proceeded to cruise around until 4:30 when we finally found a spot we were semi comfortable with. But not too comfortable – First Mate made herself cozy on the chairs on the aft deck and stayed awake until 7am to be sure we wouldn’t have another similar surprise. Hence, the sunrise pictures; it was a beautiful morning. She then woke up Captain & had a short nap until 8:30 as we were leaving. Don’t think we’ll be too enthusiastic about spending another night on the hook any time soon.