Captain has said we need a new anchor, but after the way it
held us in place again last night in 17-22 knot winds, I am more in favor of saving the several hundred
dollars it would cost to replace and letting this one, having earned our
confidence, to adorn the bow for a while longer.
Our trek to Naples from Little Shark was quite pleasant
without strong winds or waves to plough through. Arriving around 4:30 we wanted to anchor with Dottie and Mark on
“Toots Sea” in Port Royal so picked our way through the shallow channel to “21”
where we thought they were only to realize they were at “7.” Not sure we could get into their anchorage with our deeper draft and the tide continuing to drop decided the
Naples City Marina Mooring field was as close as retracing our path back. We hailed
the harbor master to see it a ball was available, and it was, but they would be
closing at 5:00p.m. a few minutes before we arrived. “No problem,” we responded and continued on
to the fuel dock where they instructed we would need to pump out before
mooring. Without a lot of wind, docking
unaided was pretty easy. While we were
there we deposited our trash, filled the tanks with water, pumped out the
holding tanks and washed salt-encrusted Aurora clean. In the meantime, Fritz and I went ashore to do
his business and with the binoculars spotted our mooring “A” ball in the
harbor. When we returned Dennis was
ready to push off, leaving behind what had begun as a mistake turned into the
very best deal of the whole trip, and for only $10.
Only eight blocks from downtown, we could have dinghyed in, walked to the
bustling and popular 5th Ave., but instead fixed
dinner on the boat and watched the full moon rising above the beautiful Naples
Harbor skyline.
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