Embarrassing docking

We had a great weekend on the boat for Thanksgiving. We went North to Poulsbo on Thanksgiving day and spent a couple of nights. We had a slip there at the Marina which is a wonderful spot to enjoy the town of Poulsbo when the weather is poor. The only hitch was that I embarrassed myself on both arrival and departure.

Coming in late Thursday afternoon the wind was 20 kts out of the South. My assigned slip was a bow-in, starboard tie, heading North. The transient docks were mostly empty so there was plenty of room. I was to have the slip all to myself so didn't need to worry about another boat between the fingers.

Things were looking good as I crabbed my way down the fairway to make the turn to port into the slip. I made the turn and was lined up nicely in the finger. Only then did I realize that the wind was more Westerly than I had thought. My son says that the wind shifted to more Westerly, but I think he was simply being kind.

I now was being blown to starboard into the finger dock. I was able to use power and rudder to get the bow away but the corner of the dock was aimed for the hull amidships. The wind was too much for the bow and stern thrusters. Fortunately, a nice owner of a Bayliner 4788 came out to take the bow line and my son was able to step off and help push the boat away so that between the stern thruster and prop walk we were able to keep from hitting the dock. All in all, a poor performance.

Given the wind I used a both a port and starboard bow line, two springs and a stern breast line to keep us secure overnight.

Two days later we went to leave. The wind was only 5-10 out of the South so this was going to be an easy departure. I took off the springs, had my wife holding the stern breast line, and untied the starboard bow line bring it around the aft horn of the dock cleat and back through the hawse hole. This would fall off the horn as we backed out but my son was ready to release it from the boat if it didn't. Great plan.

I had my wife release the stern line and allowed the wind to push the boat forward against the starboard bow line, which swung the stern away from the dock. Then I applied power in reverse to back us away. Worked great until the boat stopped dead in the water, held by something. My son said the starboard bow line hadn't slipped off the dock horn. That was odd... He untied it from the bow, thereby releasing the odd tension which had kept it from slipping off. I then put it in reverse again. This time, the bow swung to port and then the boat stopped again. It was only then that I recalled tying an extra bow line on the port side to a clear on the dock ahead of us. The first attempt the port bow line kept the boat from moving back and caused enough tension on the starboard line so it didn't slip off the dock cleat.

Well, now I was in a pickle. We were 4' from the dock on the starboard side. I was working the stern to the side so my son could step off to get that line when a friendly boat owner came down the dock with a box of doughnuts. He kindly release the port bow line from the dock and we were finally away. Another embarrassing dock experience.

YOu have now completed your yearly quota.
May the rest of the years play nice.

C lectric said:

YOu have now completed your yearly quota.
May the rest of the years play nice.

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If only that were so. I can usually come up with some imaginative and entertaining ways to screw up.

Dhays, No worries!

I've tied up in Poulsbo, with those evil winds on more than one occasion. Not pretty, but pretty humbling.
I feel your embarassment and your pain.

Bill

Anyone who says they've never done that is lying.

I've never done that

Dang, it's a good thing you got those two in before the year end. I'd hate to think you would have to carry those over to the new year. That would give you at least four to suffer through next year!

Couple of years ago the guy in the sailboat in the slip behind ours was getting ready to leave for a weekend out. We chatted for a while and said our goodbyes. I stepped on my boat and looked around as he started to leave the slip and saw that he had left his power cable connected. I didn't even call out to him, jumped off, turned it and yanked it out as it was getting taught, and jogged down the finger and threw in into his cockpit much to his surprise.

I just laughed and waved and he laughed back.

It's all in the game!

Been there, Dave (not Poulsbo, but . . . you know. There). Thanks for sharing a great story!

There is apparently no end to the ____ things that we can screw up. I've done the power line thing as in #7. Happily, no one was there to see, or hear.

'it' happens. You walk away from it and learn.... or you just walk away. No harm no foul. Wish my little boat was even IN the water. Enjoy the season!

I've done the power cord thing twice, once while it was hot. Dave... If you'd had your head about ya, you could have told the guy to drop the line and throw the donuts instead of the other way around.

Be thankful you only damaged your pride, could have got ugly. Might have even pulled a Crusty Stunt!

Like, forgot to turn on the thrusters, or didn't disconnect the fresh water hose and rip the hose fitting out of the boat or..........you get the idea.

Have a cocktail when you get back and chalk up another learning experiance.

Cheers!

Takes only 1 AW CRAP, to wipe out 5 ATTA BOYS. Been there done that.

Dave

I hope this doesn't mean you want to hear from the rest of us. By myself, I could fill volumes. NO NO NO!

Crusty Chief said:

Be thankful you only damaged your pride, could have got ugly. Might have even pulled a Crusty Stunt!

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I resisted the spoonerizing temptation.
We`ve all been there at some time. As a dock neighbour often remarks at dockings "Every one of those you walk away from, is a good one".

The transient docks at Poulsbo can be tough even with not a lot of wind. The current seems to swirl in there messing up even the best approaches into the slip... With a crossing wind it can embarrass anyone...

boatpoker said:

Anyone who says they've never done that is lying.

I've never done that

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I've never done that.

If there are no witnesses, it never happened. That's my story and I'm stickin' to it.

Don't worry Dave. I've seen lots of questionable docking at Poulsbo. Maybe even a couple of my own.

Docking Fun and Games

Been there. Done that. Got the T-shirt.
Fortunately, the only harm was to your ego. No need for fiberglass repair!

No damage, no big.

Basically I avoid docking unless there are dock hands and/or friends on the finger pier to catch the lines. With the windage that the typical trawler has you can loose control once you slow down.

Two words . . . and the first one is "cluster.'

Dave, this should make you feel better. (I didn't even need a dock for this comedy of errors.)

On our first trip, delivering our Defever from Palm Coast to the Chesapeake, I fell victim to the dreaded schedule. I drove a rental to town, picked my son up at the airport at 9:30 pm and planned to be underway as early as possible the next day--on a boat neither of us had run before nor fully understood.

After several delays--and with making it to the mooring fields at Fernandina topmost in my mind--we left Palm Coast a couple hours later than planned. We were enjoying the lovely Florida views for at least a half hour when it dawned us that we'd turned south into the ditch instead of north. Chalk up another hour.

We arrived at Fernandina in the dark and tried to pick up a pennant from one of the balls. I grabbed one by hand and thought I could hold the boat until it steadied in place against the heavy current--before walking it to the bow. (I'd done this with our 7,200-lb. sailboat; how much harder could it be for a 44,000-lb trawler?) In the dark, I hadn't noticed the pennant was covered with tiny mollusks. The current ripped it out of my grip and the barnacles, or whatever, made hash out of my hand.

With all the blood and cursing, my son--on the helm--didn't notice that we'd drifted over the pennant and were now fouled and firmly stuck on it. After flirting with the idea of diving on it -- in the dark, in the strong current and with a bloody hand (what could go wrong with that?)--I decided we'd stay put. I woke up a couple guys on an adjacent sailboat who dinghied our anchor up-current for some additional piece of mind. (They couldn't have been more helpful.)

The next day, a diver freed the prop in about two minutes and reported no visible damage. We stayed put another day and night and just reviewed every system on the boat. We also practiced picking up a pennant the right way until we could do it in the dark if we had to.

Of the many lessons I learned on this fiasco, number one for me was that being in a hurry just compounds the likelihood of mistakes. Two was: things can go wrong quickly. And three was: never tell my wife about my stoopid boating tricks.

On boats, s@$t happens, all the time.

I've done so many stupid things on our boat I don't really get embarrassed any more.

What is kind off funny but sad at the same time, is the people who camp out at boat slips with their sandwiches and Thermos to watch the fun.

Beach Blvd slip here in Jax has a whole population of them!

I guess we are in NASCAR country, where everyone is just watching for the crash!

Greetings,
Mr. dh. If you're really concerned about your docking performance as conveyed in post #1 you probably worry about matching sox as well. Life's too short. Don't sweat the petty things and don't pet the sweaty things...

RT Firefly said:

Greetings,
Mr. dh. If you're really concerned about your docking performance as conveyed in post #1 you probably worry about matching sox as well. Life's too short. Don't sweat the petty things and don't pet the sweaty things...

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RT is on the money! I've hurt our boat, cussed me, cussed lines, cussed current and wind. Cussed the lack of Rudder Indicator. Took bad advise. I stopped. Said the heck with it and rolled along. Much better at driving my boat now. Still have problems parking in our slip. Now I don't care who see's what. Make like a duck -- let the water slip off your back.

..been there more than one time.. Worst was tried to go out from pier 39 (very touristic spot so in front of 2000 people watching you) and:
a) forget disconnect ac line from shore post
b) no release a line attached firmly at a cleat
c) forget wife on port (non intentional... that time..)
d) abandon unwelcome crew/friends/visit on shore..
..very funny when you recall... 10 years later...

You can still use the boat again......Right? Right??

Crusty Chief said:

Be thankful you only damaged your pride, could have got ugly. Might have even pulled a Crusty Stunt!

Like, forgot to turn on the thrusters, or didn't disconnect the fresh water hose and rip the hose fitting out of the boat or..........you get the idea.

Have a cocktail when you get back and chalk up another learning experiance.

Cheers!

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Really? Funny you never mentioned those to me.

No property damage...no big deal! We all screw up from time to time.

A few months ago I took my mom over to Bainbridge Island for the night. When we arrived back at Elliott Bay Marina the next day, I pulled into the slip and put a turn on the stern line, then walked forward to secure the bow line. It was a bit of a reach to the line and I asked my mom, still on the boat, to use the bow thruster to move the boat towards the dock. Instead, she shoved the throttle forward! The stern line came off the cleat and the boat surged forward. The rubrail hit a piling and the boat stopped...thankfully, the only damage was a few bent screws securing the rubrail.

The lesson? Never ask a guest to do something unless you've given them explicit instructions. Never assume, even if they've spent a lot of time on the boat, that they know what to do.