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Old 03-05-2019, 12:02 PM   #8
Rufus
Guru
 
City: Great Lakes
Vessel Model: OA 440
Join Date: Aug 2017
Posts: 906
I pilot our 44 solo on most trips (Great Lakes). Spouse moves the car to meet me at the next marina. It's not about the voyage for her.

For me all docking is from the flybridge station, even though the cabin helm has an adjacent door. I stop the boat and rig the lines just prior to approaching the slip. The midship line is fastened to the mid-cleat and then tossed up onto the flybridge where I loosely tie it to a support pole of the bimini frame. The bow line is strung out along the bow walkway and can be grabbed with a boat hook. Same for the stern line, which has a short loop on the rail with the rest neatly coiled on the deck. Easy to grab by a dockhand if I'm close enough to the dock...otherwise a boat hook. When I'm almost into the slip I step over to the side of the flybridge, untie the mid line and throw the coil to the dock person...often just my spouse. She knows the follow up choreography. Of course once the midship spring line is attached to a dock cleat, the boat is fairly easy to maneuver into position for the rest. I ALWAYS call the dock folks on the phone and go over what will happen and in what order. If a solo dock hand goes for the bow line first, he/she will hear about it.

If there's no one on the dock my plan is to drop the anchor, or hover about until I can flag someone down on the docks. Never been a problem in 12 years cruising the Lakes, though. The main reason I don't use the lower helm is that I can't see much astern with an aft cabin configuration.


As far as solo cruising in general, I'm at the lower helm in the early Spring because of the cold. If it's dark or nasty fog I'm in the cabin because there's no radar display on the fly bridge. If it's foggy and I'm entering a harbor...I'm always on the flybridge.
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