May 16, docking experience #2

This Saturday, it was back to the boat and not letting myself chicken out. This time, Allison and Brian came out, both of whom have more experience than I do. Allison was a dream - I guess there's nothing like working with a bunch of teenage girls in sea scouts to make one ready to handle a worrywart adult female. Although I think I was able to whine with the best of them.

My slip neighbor Kim was also out, sunning herself and just hanging out with her dog. She definitely socializes a lot with the other folks on the dock - I think it's great how much she's out there. She's definitely getting her money's worth out of her boat!

No problems getting the boat out of the dock, though I still don't feel comfortable with it. THe boat seemed to want to swing wide, and I thought I had the rudder pointed in the right direction. I think if I have two people with me, I'll have one person watch the bow, and one the stern to make sure the current doesn't creep up on me while I'm keeping the bow away from the other boats. My tendency will certainly be to stay further away from the boats in the slips, and that could get my stern caught.

So, we motored out of the slough, raised the mainsail and unfurled the jib and... kind of sat. The current was strong, and the wind was relatively light and coming more from the northwest (so it was the right direction but not strong enough). We ended up motorsailing for a bit. We tried a little wing-on-wing action, we were in broad reach for a while, but no matter what, we were slowly being pushed downstream. We did have the motor off for a bit when the wind was slightly higher. But it was sunny and clear and at least we were out. It is kind of entertaining that we were out for two hours with the bow pointing upriver and moving downriver the whole time.

We started to head in a little after 5PM, and (for future timing references) were actually leaving about 6:30PM. It would have taken a little less time, but we stopped to practice on the little PYC dock again to get a feel for the current and the angle of the boat, which was useful and a lower (I wouldn't call it low) stress way to get a little more comfortable. And we actually docked well there. Leaving those slide slips is so much easier than the real slip - you pretty much just fall away into the current and don't over steer so you don't bump the stern into the dock.

The actual docking went much smoother than last time (though I'd swear there were even more witnesses around!). Allison & Brian coached me on the position of the bow and when I needed to nudge the speed a bit. it was a little difficult getting the lines on, but it was done w/o too much fuss. I wonder if I should have a spring line ready just in case the regular lines are being difficult. That might be useful.

TODAY's LESSON: crabbing across the slough with plenty of room to chicken out was a nice, lower stress way to get aligned for entering the row, rather than coming in relatively close and needing to get the angle & speed correct while already surrounded by boats & docks.

I am also constantly amazed at who emerges with sailing and boating skill. It turns out my neighbor Tom has a huge amount of boating experience, and has moved boats from Mexico. How cool is that? He's definitely being added to my list of sailors to take out!

There's still a lot of work to be done on the boat, but I did enjoy being out today, and next Saturday is already scheduled, so I'll keep at it!