What is a 'Snug Harbor?'

What is a 'Snug Harbor?'

Merriman-Webster's Dictionary defines a snug harbor as a cozy comfortable retreat; especially :  a home for retired seamen. That isn't it at all!

I have always thought of it as a secure cove with good holding ground for one or two anchors and easy access to the beach or town. My fellow 'Dead End Canal Yacht Club' members have different definition depending on their financial status and type of boat.

Most sailors agree with my description. The holding ground (bottom) is most important. Not many anchorages have everything. If you have chartered in 'the islands,' you've probably seen the chart of the nearby islands and their anchorages desirability rating. Some use a scale of 1 to 10, others A to Z but all are very helpful.

It's very tempting to pass up a crowded anchorage for an empty cove but you'd better check the rating. If a rock slide had covered the bottom near shore during a long forgotten earthquake you probably couldn't tell but the chart can. You'll have to put up with the Scandinavian honeymooners frolicking naked on deck next to you? Sorry!

One of my favorite anchorages is behind Fort Jefferson in the Dry Tortugas National Park. I didn't say Snug Harbor because I don't consider the holding ground to be ideal. Having an anchor watch is definitely a good idea because too many boaters and sailors drop the hook and forget it. When a stiff breeze blows through with a thunderstorm, boats go a drifting where they will.

It's possible that being in the Lee (shelter) of the massive fort stimulates a false sense of security. It shouldn't because 270 degrees of the compass has very little cover. Bird Island is just a high sandbar and the reef is underwater most of the time so it acts like a breakwater some of the time. Any wind, except out of the North, is unobstructed.

The bottom is crushed shell and sand, which is very finely crushed shell. Very little mud. I've never seen anyone struggling to raise an anchor. That is why most experienced boaters set a second anchor and post an anchor watch during thunderstorms to fend off drifting boats intent on fouling as much anchor rode as possible while mucking up the whole scheme.

On Fort Myers Beach, we have our own Snug Harbor. It is at the end of old San Carlos Boulevard sandwiched between Moss Marina and Nervous Nellie's. It is a Condominium that once had the best restaurant/bar on the beach semi-attached to it. I think they invented Happy Hour and I never can remember not waiting to get a seat!

I think I've answered my own question, haven't I. And it is the perfect evasion to the question; where are you from? Forget coming back with... “and how will that information benefit you?” Just ask if the remember the Snug Harbor restaurant. If they say NO, pretend you swallowed a bug because who wants to talk about Pennsyltucky, anyway?

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