Docking and Maintenance, August 24th – 29th

On Sunday the 24th, Mark and I ventured out into the back of the Everett Marina for a few hours to practice docking.  Mark had watched videos on Youtube and wanted to get used to how the engine maneuvered.  I also wanted to learn how to become comfortable with getting off the boat and able to handle the lines.  All this is critical to docking.  We do not want to crash into the dock.  It was a great learning experience for both of us.

On Tuesday evening after work, Blain Nelson, from the Milltown Sailing Association, from our sailing club graciously offer to help us learn to dock.  After about an hour I felt much more confident about docking.  He showed us an ingenious way of putting a loop in the springline that acts like a brake when you are coming in.  After spending less than an hour of training, entering and leaving our slip, Mark and I feel a lot more confident in our abilities.  Especially me!  To be fair, the winds and currents have yet to be strong on any of our docking attempts. 

We still haven’t had any training from Captain Scott.  I’m really looking forward to his training as it should help us with the currents and winds.On Friday, the engine repair guy and the boat docking guy (Captain Scott) we hired arrived at the same time.  Frank, the engine repair person, was supposed to be there earlier in the week.  Mark had also called him the day before to confirm that he would be working on the engine earlier in the day as we had hired Captain Scott at 3:30pm.  I guess engine repair people have their own time schedule…  Anyway, Captain Scott was fine with rescheduling.