Southerly

   Heading down the ICW route, we happen into our lunch stop. Alligator river marina. Ok, so here is why this stop should be avoided. We called ahead, and they told us no problem they would meet us at the dock, and we could enjoy our meal. Typically if someone meets you at the dock they know how to handle lines. Not here.
   We were moving at about 2 kts still when he asked for our spring line. Dana handed it to him, and he instantly cleated it off. Sending our boat bowsprit smashing into the pier..... wow. IDIOT. Whatever no damage done, he goes inside while we tie up. I hook up the power and we go inside. For a gas station, the food was OK. Alligator bites, fried chicken. We had been at anchor for two days, so Dana wanted to shower before we left. Once we returned to the boat she started to shower, as we now had hot water.
   About 5 min later the man who has no idea how to get a boat into a dock, stood outside shouting. He said, you cannot have power here, you need to leave if not staying for the night! and with this, he shut off the breaker. wow, a $30 meal is not enough for 15 min docked, waiting for your stomach to settle?

Moving on. We anchored out again this night. During the night our boat wanted to tour the lower alligator river. Being asleep, who were we to say no. I am not sure what caused the anchor to drag. All i know is we were about 9/10th of a mile from where we started, and the anchor, with more chain out did not hold well.
Alas, it was light. we raised the anchor, and motored on. It turns out the anchor drug due to a combination of 35knot winds, and a crab pot. We had the wire mesh from he pot still clinging to the anchor when it was raised. Woops.

This day was frigid. We were both freezing, and we stopped early at River Forest Marina. $1.50 a foot.
the line handler was professional, and knew exactly what needed to be done. He put us into a slip that was 6'3" deep. our draft is 6'6" deep.... it makes it easy to dock when your on the bottom, honest it does.
Very nice marina, short fingers, but not bad.

They gave us a free golf cart to use, so we went to food lion to provision. However not until we had stopped at the friendliest restaurant we had ever been to. On The Hook. The waitress was super nice, and went out of her way for me. I was jonesing for a desert after i ate my fried chicken (fried chicken, a new trend?) She went back to find cake for us, and afterword i asked for more, she went back in search again, and came back with two more pieces!!! It was closing time, so we loaded back into the golf cart and off we went.
   What a great stop. It will be on our list for a second visit.