In our 4 years of cruising we have spent over 95% anchored out. This is for many reasons, not the least of which is the fact it's free. Being on a extremely tight budget makes this a necessity. But there are other reasons we prefer anchoring to living in a marina.
During the summer it's so hot you really feel more comfortable the least amount of clothes you can wear. In the anchorage you have the privacy to wear anything or nothing at all.
The breeze in the anchorage also keeps you cooler than in a marina where the boats are packed so tight and the buildings around you keeps the breeze to a minimum.
At anchor there is sea life everywhere. We have dolphins swimming around and under our boat almost everyday and you can catch fish right from your cockpit. Not to mention the crabs , starfish and last week a whale shark swam under my dinghy just inches away.
When anchored we're so close to the beach that we can take the dogs swimming and running for hours a day with very little effort.
So all and all we love and prefer being anchored out when we're near a city with marinas.
Then hurricane Newton came calling and we decided it's safer to be in a marina. We really only needed to be there for 2, maybe 3 days. But the price was the same for 3 days as for a week. So we paid for a week. We thought it would be a good opportunity to use the almost unlimited water to fill our tanks and clean the boat from top to bottom. In the anchorage water is precious because every drop needs to be transported by dinghy in 5 gallon jugs.
Then the pleasure's of marina life started to work it's evil ways.
First, as mentioned, the unlimited water. Then the unlimited and fast internet access. Then two even bigger benefits, showers anytime we want for as long as we want and a really nice pool. Did I mention the unlimited water?! I think only a cruiser can fully appreciate how nice this is!
All this was almost enough to convince us to fork out money, we really couldn't afford, to stay in the marina. But not quite.
Then one more reason came up and we have gone to the dark side and we're now in this marina for a second week and it looks like it may be even longer.
On the dock near us we met a really nice couple, Rob and Kim Cross, that own a engine repair shop. Our engine crapped out almost two years ago. We just haven't had the money to pull it and rebuild it. So we've been sailing everywhere we go, which sometimes can be hard and/or frustrating. But they are going to let us use their equipment and some space in their shop to rebuild our engine. Because I'm not a mechanic his free advice is going to be priceless. This is worth more than the cost of staying in a marina for a couple months, at least!
We're going to enjoy this while we can and use this time to get stuff done on the boat, but we know we're just not marina people at heart and will be back out in the anchorage very soon.
Update on week three: someone gave us a air conditioner so now we've truly gone over to the dark side!
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