We were aiming for the highly acclaimed anchorage in between the two free city docks.

However, when we got here around 4:00 (long slow day through no wake zones) there was no anchorage to be found?! This area was all filled in with docks & boats. Plus there were a dozen or two large power boats at idle (not anchored) in the vicinity. Very odd!

We zigged and zagged around all the big boats that were idling all over the place. Then found a good spot on the other side of the harbor to drop the anchor and think a bit to figure out what is going on, and what we will do.

After a while at anchor I called the local TowBoatUS. He explained that the anchorage is closed for a big international boat show next week. The big boats doing their pirouettes in the vicinity were all boat show exhibits waiting their turn to go into their show slips!

Then we set the VHF radio to scan all channels to determine which channel(s) the boat show staff was using to coordinate the “loading up” of boat show slips.