I’m awakened at 5:30 am by the sound of metal clanging, not once, but twice, I sit straight up in bed, remove my CPAP mask and listen again, clanking again, louder this time. I jump out of my bunk and head up the companionway and I see the sailboat behind me sailing up my stern, its anchor platform banging on my stern arch. This could be a mess if they get tangled together. My head is telling me, ‘I told you that it was too close’. As long as the winds were above 10 knots, all the boats in the lake would be facing the same direction. But now, when the winds are lighter and the boats as controlled more by the current than by the wind each boat is at a different place in their swing circle. I lean overboard and stretch out off the back of the boat and grab the other boat’s anchor and push the boat away. I grab my boat hook and push it even further, but the current wants to bring it back toward me almost immediately. It’s obvious by looking at how each boat is facing that the current swirls in Lake Sylvia and this is going to be a constant problem. Thankfully the owner of the ‘other’ boat comes up on deck, says, ‘oh, this looks like my problem’ and goes forward and starts taking in some anchor chain (shortening the circle), I do the same and sit in the cockpit for a time to see how close the two will come now… it doesn’t take long, they are still too close and I shorten my chain even further. Well, it’s 6:30 am, and I am up for the duration now.
After breakfast, I got on the internet and found half a dozen hull cleaning divers/companies in the Hollywood-Ft. Lauderdale area and leave messages on their website, telling them what I needed and asking them to contact me. To my great surprise, I get a text from a diver who says he will be in the Las Olas area all Monday morning and will stop by just after noon, I text great. Problem solved. I texted my brother and tell him to hold off coming to the boat, I’ve got a diver coming.