We took this day to
explore the facilities and what was within walking distance. We enjoyed breakfast in a local
restaurant. They had Bloody Mary's for
$2 which was cheaper than the milk. So,
there you go. No plans for the day, so
why not?
Here's how a mooring ball works. There are floating balls that are anchored
and spread out to keep boats a safe
distance apart. You bring your
boat up to a numbered ball and grab the line that is attached to it and bring
that line back to your boat. (We have
also run one of our lines through their loop, but they wanted us to use their line
here.) Then you head up to the office
and pay for the night. It is much
cheaper than a slip in a marina, and a step above anchoring.
Slips run an average
of $2.00/ foot. But we are hearing that
will get much higher in the more touristy areas. So for our 43 foot boat, you spend
$86/night. The nightly rate is cheaper
if you stay for a week or a month. For
that money, you have the peace and mind of a safe night tied to a dock. There are showers and coin laundry facilities
(and you get what you pay for so they can vary). Usually there is a restaurant on site or
close by. Sometimes a convenience store. Some marinas are working marinas if you need
work done on your boat. Others are
strictly resort type places. Your slip
has a power source you can plug into.
You can recharge the batteries and use any power you want. And each slip generally has a water spigot,
so you refill your tanks. Most have a
fuel dock and a pump out station. Some
have wifi. And a few even have a
courtesy car for you to use (haven't seen that since we left AL).
When you anchor, you
always have to check your anchor to be sure it is holding. And you have to watch that other boat's
anchors are holding and they aren't slipping towards your boat. It's free, but you have no facilities. So you have to conserve your water and
electricity. You can run your generator
to recharge the batteries, but that uses fuel.
We plan to anchor as much as possible.
Now with a mooring
ball, we pay $15/night. We have access
to their showers and coin laundry, but we have to go by dinghy to shore. They do have a free pump out service that
comes to our boat, but we need to make a reservation. I think we could get water, but we would have
to fill jugs. We haven't had to do that
yet, but I think that's more common in the Caribbean. We just ordered a water maker, so that will
give us more freedom to anchor for longer periods of time. I'll go into that more when Dave is
installing it in a couple weeks.
The Mangelsens and
Hartleys stayed at Salty Sam's marina another night after sailing out on the
Gulf today. They invited us over for
happy hour and dinner. We brought a
couple things to share and had another
fun evening at their boat. I drove the
dinghy there for the experience.
Tonight, Karen won LRC and I won 31.
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