We navigated the thirty miles to Sumter Recreation Area, an anchorage that both Life’s 2 Short and Motu highly recommended as a place to linger. As we entered the cove just before 5 o’clock, we could see the trawler Tarquin had arrived and picked her spot already. We waved to Tarquin as they passed us early this morning when we were enjoying coffee on the bow.
After trying several times to set the Delta anchor, we decided the grassy bottom was not going to allow it. Our anchor simply drug. Even though we weren’t expecting any weather, we wanted good holding in case we stayed more than one night.
We finally hauled up the Delta and threw out our small lightweight Fortress anchor. She held fast and as we backed down on it, the line broke! Good thing we had a third anchor, our Danforth. The Danforth is similar in design to the Fortress anchor and we were able to get great holding the first try. By now it was almost 6 o’clock and Gale was eager to do some fishing. We left the lost anchor for retrieval on another day.
Gale visited with Eddie and Sandi Bartels, m/v Tarquin, and learned they had almost completed the Great Loop and they were on their way home to Cortez, Florida. Perhaps we will look them up someday when we are in their area. Tarquin hauled up her anchor Monday morning and motored away.
We dinghied to shore and took a walk through the small recreation area. The boat ramp looked like it was used on a regular basis, but the campsites probably not so much. It was a primitive campground, meaning there was no electricity available, but the sites were clean, level and some had very nice views of the water or the woods. On our walk down the local road, we could tell that some animal had been digging up the ditches. Gale found evidence of feral pig tracks and we surmised that the pigs were looking for roots.
Mo and Honey, m/v Motu, arrived at the anchorage on Monday afternoon. We had her over for dinner and drinks and we all enjoyed the fresh bass that Gale had caught.
On Tuesday, we walked through the park again, this time with Mo and Honey, and met the Park Hosts, Bill and Dorothy. Bill told us that the wild pigs had become a real problem and that what we saw was, indeed, the result of rooting by feral pigs.
Gale spent about 20 minutes dragging for the anchor during the afternoon and was very happy to find it after a few tries. We tied it to the stern and found it was set so well, it would take moving the big boat to pull it up. We left that chore for the morning when we pulled up the main anchor.
Tuesday evening, Mo had us over for garlic chicken with roasted potatoes and onions. It was a fabulous meal and we enjoyed her company very much. We told her we planned to leave in the morning and she said she’d like to travel with us to Demopolis.
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