The title of this entry refers entirely to the activities that took place yesterday when we had to fit a boat 13'10" wide into an area that was 15' 5" wide!! Yikes!!
Our friends, Barb & John, had a slip they had rented through Dec 2nd and got finished with their boat work and left early. This marina has a serious shortage of slips (especially in the Spring & Fall when all the cruisers are getting their boats into or out of storage) so they offered to sub-let their space to us for the balance of their time. We were delighted to accept as this not only saved us money but also allowed us to get the boat out of the work yard and into the water much sooner.
John & Barb's boat is over a foot narrower than "Faith" and the slip in question is a double with a very large, wide powerboat installed in the other side. John measured carefully and we determined that "Faith" would fit, but with only 19" clearance it would be very, very tight. We arranged to have a friend of Chris' join us on the boat to help fend off if needed as well as Chris' brother, Lee, and a couple with another Morgan 41 on the dock to take lines and pull us in.
I spent a sleepless night worrying about all the "what if's" and "how's" that would take place. Turned out to be pretty painless but I still tend to worry.
The boat was to be launched at 8am yesterday but they were almost an hour late so that added to my list of things that could go wrong ("What if the wind picks up? What if the tide goes out?"). When they got her in the water it was quiet, calm and sunny. After being stored on the hard for the past 5 months we were delighted when the engine started right up and after about 10 minutes of idling it was purring like it did all last season. Now it was time to go.
In order to get to our slip, we had to back out of the launch area to the main fairway and, since "Faith" has an "I back only to port" problem I had been concerned about how I was going to negotiate the backing straight and then to starboard in that very confined area. Well...I learned a great trick from a new Canadian friend of ours. We'd recently been to dinner with John & Barb and Bill & Janet from "Optical Illusion" and John & I were commiserating about how poorly our boats back up. Bill told us to set the rudder in the middle, put it in reverse and get started backwards and then put it in neutral and "you can drive it anywhere". I was skeptical at best but decided to give it a shot. OMG!! It worked like a charm! Not only did she back straight but she went to STARBOARD as well!! It was a beautiful thing!! I saw Bill later that afternoon and thanked him for the new skill and he assured me that with practice I'll be able to parallel park. Well, I'm not at all convinced about that but who knows?
When we got to the slip Lee & Steve were there to take lines and the power boat neighbor was out on his bow to fend us off if need be. We're only 4 boats down the dock so not a lot of room to get Faith pointed in the right direction but I got pretty close. We were pretty much nose-to-nose with the power boat. Chris threw the bow line to Steve and then he & the neighbor pushed us away while Steve pulled us toward the dock. Steve pulled us in far enough for Rex to throw the stern line to Lee and I just sat and watched the 5 guys literally pulled us into the slip. I just love strong men, don't you?
Once we got tied up, Chris & the neighbor were positioning fenders and I tried to turn off the engine. No go! The cable that you pull up to turn it off seems to have seized up during the summer! Once we got tied up and stabilized Chris went below and stopped the engine by hand...and added that fix to "the list".
It was great to have the boat in the water and tied up to a dock but both of us were exhausted. Between my cold and my "parking anxiety" neither of us had gotten much sleep the night before so we just closed the girl up, went to lunch and came back to the trailer for a couple hours sleep. Today we washed all the yard dust off and then started on all the myriad jobs we need to get done so we can start cruising this year. It won't be much longer now...and the best part is now we can go sit on the boat again. It is amazing how relaxing just that little thing can be.
2 comments:
Way to go, grrrl! Good job all around! Hope you feel better by the time you read this. Get some R&R!
Congratulations Sandy and Chris
and Happy Thanksgiving!
Hope you have as much fun this season as you seemed to have had during the last one.
All the best to you,
Susan & Stephen
still on the hard, in the wind, and rain...
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