November 24, 2022 Happy Thanksgiving!

Fort Mcree Cove (Anchored), Florida to Holiday Harbor Marina, Perdido Key, Florida

WELL, today started very early this morning.  Sometime around 2:45 a.m., a weird alarm started going off on Kip's phone.  It was the anchor alarm on kip's phone telling him the phone was low on battery.  Kip got up and looked out the window to check everything, and he saw this (the boat was dark when we saw it - this picture was taken after the boat owner got up, turned on a light, and started taking action to move).

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Another boat's anchor let loose, and the boat was moving towards us (this was the boat that came in after dark last night with no lights on)!  We could not pull anchor because the boat was right on top of where our anchor was.  Kip used the search light out and shined it into their window.  When that didn't work, he sounded the horn.  When that didn't work, he blew an emergency horn whistle.  Nothing.  The boat continued drifting toward us.  

Kip decided to take the dinghy over to the boat and knock on their boat to get their attention.  I grabbed his life jacket, and he jumped in our dinghy, getting ready to go.  He then noticed that the back door was open, and a guy said "I guess my anchor let loose.  Thanks for letting me know."  

Who could go back to bed after that!  We stayed up and made a pot of coffee, too riled up to go back to sleep.

We decided to go back to the Gulf Shore beach around 7:00 a.m. because the tide was going to be low.  We didn't find any other shells because, even though the tide was low, the waves were still making it difficult.  On our way back we saw many dolphins in the area where the fishermen usually go, and they were having a feeding frenzy.  We didn't have any phones or our camera, so no pictures.

We dinghied to our boat to make scrambled eggs with ham.  When we got back, we noticed that (you guessed it) the guy with the loose boat was again moving in our direction.  We quickly pulled anchor and got the heck out of there.

We are going to Holiday Harbor, which isn't very far to travel.  The weather was cloudy, but the waves weren't bad at all.  Pretty easy going.  We found the marina, but nobody is here because of Thanksgiving.  They gave us our dock slip number over the phone, so we can just pull in.  To my dismay, they have pilons here and a tiny dock (no floating docks with easy step off/step on access).  I hate trying to lasso the pilons!  😟  

Once we got settled, we took a mile or so bike ride to Perdido Beach.  It was misting out, the waves were huge, and there were several people fishing.

On the way back from the beach we went past the Ranger Tug broker building.  They don't have a sales floor, but someone shows up to sell the boats from this location.  Here are some of the Ranger Tug(s) for sale.

Since we were up early, we had a quick snack and set our sights on a nap!  I slept longer than Kip (no surprise) and when I woke up Kip was gone.  He took his bike to Publix Grocery Store, but he texted me and told me the store was closed because of Thanksgiving.  He stopped at a gas station and picked up treats for us (Reese's Pieces and a Hershey bar).  Kip also picked up chicken fried rice, so we are having grilled cheese sandwiches, salad, and chicken fried rice for supper.  How's that for a Thanksgiving dinner!!

We miss our friends and family very much and wish all of you a happy, healthy, and blessed Thanksgiving.  

Here are the stats from Nebo:

If you look closely at the map below, there is a small circle in the middle of the trip.  This is when Kip put WD40 into the horn (it sounded kind of weak this morning) and did a circle to have the wind force the oil into the horn.  His mind is always working on something.  😊