Holding in place

We had plans to leave yesterday for points south; however, a weather check Tuesday night on the storm Eta gave us pause to rethink traveling to south Florida this week. Another week in Stuart seems prudent. 

There are moments of crisis in the buoy field. Lilly, a prow, gaff-rigged schooner started to sink. SeaTow arrived with big pumps and after a couple hours saved the ship. They moved to a dock and did the repairs. 

Lilly going by us - all well again:

Tuesday afternoon we spotted a large ketch trying to pick up a mooring ball in a 12 knot breeze. The multiple attempts were fun to watch for a few minutes, but their technique was very poor and became painful to watch. 

De Anne and I began to debate rendering assistance (she - pro, me - con). 10 minutes later we were in our dinghy with a stout mooring line. 

It was an older couple in a very large, heavy boat. We attached our mooring line and held it out for their next pass. De Anne passed him the line while I attempted to stay close without being rammed. Their boat looked much bigger from the front approching too fast with the husband yelling "Stop" to the wife at the helm. He cleated the line and all was well.