Shake Up Cruise (Day5) Animal Planet

 

 

The main concern I had for our current anchorage was the snob factor involved when dropping the hook in a small waterway where the shoreline consists of estates vying shoulder to shoulder with each other and nothing more than shrubbery discretely keeps them from peering into each other's windows. What I mean is; these people pay god knows what in property taxes and flood insurance in order to enjoy the view and bragging rights, and then people like us have the nerve to anchor for nothing in said water.

I'm more sensitive to this since I'll never forget the time we dared to anchor in Sunset Lake in Miami and made poor Fred K's life a living hell the whole few days we were there. And from what I've read, things have really escalated cruiser wise in Sunset Lake and Fred has spent quite a chunk of change with all kinds of devices intended to keep filthy cruisers out. In my opinion he will always be an ass.

 

After we managed to get into our little anchorage here without running aground we took a small dinghy tour and found out quite quickly that there are no dinghy docks as this is very restricted and residential. If you need to get to a store you'd better anchor elsewhere.

But we were all set with everything and really just wanted to relax.

Now, something I noticed here that I've picked up in other areas of what I'll call considerable wealth is this; the only people we ever see are the hired staff. Today all we saw were yard workers and pool cleaners. All those lovely patio sets and swimming pools sat completely unused. The only thing that was utilized today was the home alarm system in one of the houses on shore that's been going off for most of the day. Quite frankly, these particular filthy cruisers are finding it to be quite offensive and it upset an otherwise idyllic day. For shame!

 

After we dropped our anchor we noticed a huge bird nest in the mangroves behind us but since it appeared to be vacant we forgot about it until we saw a hawk flying over us several times. I laughed and stated that the Knotty Cat might be a bit more than than it could handle and then we heard a lot of insistent high pitched screeching bird noises. Sitting in what we had thought was an empty nest was obviously a mama hawk, and daddy hawk was apparently late bringing home dinner.

Mama is none too happy in her nest (sorry, bad picture)

Mama Hawk screaming from her nest: "Where the hell are you, you bastard? You said you'd be right back and these kids are hungry!"

Daddy Hawk (whom we'd witnessed dawdling about for quite some time) yelling back from the piling of the house in front of us: "A guy can't even smoke a cigarette fer Christ's sake, give me a break!"

Mama Hawk: "I know you're out there! You'd better not be screwing around with that whore in the next tree over!" (Right about then Mama Bird's Boy Toy dropped in for a visit)

Daddy Hawk obviously pecking at a delicious morsel of fish trapped between his talons that he just caught: "Shut up already! When I catch something I'll bring it home to you and the brats!"

Mama Hawk (after telling her boy toy he needs to get the hell out of the nest before her deadbeat husband returns): "Tell that to my lawyer!"

And then with a lot of screeching and screaming, Daddy Hawk arrived home with the remainder of his juicy catch just after Boy Toy took off and headed on over to the ever popular whore's nest.

As far as I know everyone lived happily ever after.

 

We were also visited several times by three dolphins. It's so quiet here we could hear them coming up for air all around our boat. Wilbur was fascinated as always and stood stock still as he watched them.

After our little dinghy trip around the area Hans took some pictures of the Knotty Cat

 

I needed to add this. Our mooring at Marina Jack's from the previous night. Typical Florida weather system.

 

From stern...

... to stem.

This is what we wake to on a daily basis in our berth.

Needless to say this has been the quietest anchorage we've ever experienced and the water was completely flat once the sun set. All the lights of the houses came on and we still never saw any people and no one asked us to leave. We aren't going to wear out our welcome though and will be leaving this afternoon.

 

 

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