Don't anchor so close to me

I am still in St Petersburg, really enjoying this town, great bike folks (sans a few numb nuts on fixies, but thats expected everywhere), great bike paths, cool bikes everywhere, even the post office delivers on bikes. Lots and lots of sailboats, I was recommended St Pete as a "blow boat community" and it definitely is, unfortunately just because someone owns a sail boat doesn't mean that they can operate the thing.

When I first dropped anchor in the municipal north yacht basin I got close to the west sea wall, rigged a line to a palm on shore and a block on my bike, hoisted the line via my topping lift and the bike zipped to shore, I stayed anchored near the west wall hoping that no one would want to come near me since there was a nasty shoal nearby. I awoke the third night there to some yelling and discovered that some people had come in at 01:00 in the crappiest McGregor 22 that I have ever seen afloat and dropped their anchor line right over mine. They were the proud new owners of said McGregor and the guy they bought the boat from explained to me "well I always park here". I'm not one to be a grammar Nazi when t comes to nautical terms but the use of the word "park" instead of the correct term "anchor" was a clue. His lack of nautical knowledge was confirmed when he told me that he removed the swing keel from the McGregor and used "rocks an stuff" as ballast to sail her, he commented that she would only sail downwind and relied on an outboard to move in the other 350 degrees.

I moved my boat away from the McGregor.

The wind began to blow from the east, pushing me closer to the sea wall and shoal, and it continued to blow, and blew harder getting the water choppy and made for uncomfortable sleeping. On the advise of several other sailors who had spent time anchored in the "snake pit" I decided it was time to move Waltzing Matilda away from the west sea wall and get into a better spot to ride out a storm. It was dark when I got her underway and motored across the snake pit, it is hard enough to judge distances on water but in the dark I find it nearly impossible, I made sure to steer clear of all other boats. I got her to a good spot, laid anchor and ran out 8:1 scope, then left the engine running for 2 hours to recharge the batteries and stood watch (in between watching "The African Queen") till 04:00 to make certain that she hooked up and held. Sleep had a lot less rolling and I felt much more comfortable in my anchorage.

Yesterday I was up a mast in the marina when the wind changed, after coming from the East for over a week it started to come from the South, I checked on Waltzing Matilda when the wind shifted and could see she was just fine but a 40' sailboat had anchored to the north of her, I thought that a vessel that big the captain would surely run enough rode out to swing free and wasn't too worried about it.

This morning that boat was gone and when I got to shore another sailor asked me if my hook had dragged, I assured him I was dead on the same spot I had been for 4 days and he informed me that Waltzing Matilda collided with the boat that anchored next to me. I didn't see the collision but when the wind changed and she swung Matilda got her motor mount tangled in the chain of the larger vessel.

They moved their boat.

Still looking for more work, got a little bit of paying work washing boats, but I need more. I am going to rebuild my rudder while here, she needed it when I bought her in '08 and now it is becoming dangerous. This is the best place to do work on my boat, lots of sailors and people are very interested in my stories. On a side note, I finally scored a SSB radio on trade, I listened to the news out of Belgium last night.