It was time to prepare the dock lines. We had already radioed to the marina, and they were aware that we only had one engine. The dock master had his tow boat ready for us, and all hands on deck at our slip. We needed to get the boat stern in (backed into our slip), since the entry point on the boat was on the starboard side. Therefore, we needed the right side of the boat to be against the walkway.
The dock guys weren’t very optimistic that we could make it happen. But in my head I’m like, “There’s no way we are going in forward… It’s just not happening.” By now, we were tied to the tow boat, and they were pushing the stern of the boat in just enough for us to be able to start backing her in.
We backed in slowly at an angle, while the entire marina staff basically pulled us into the slip using the lines we tossed them. Looking back, I feel bad because I beamed about 20 feet of dock lines to a dockhand about 3 feet away from me. He tried to catch and dodge the line at the same time, resulting in the line smacking him in the face, whoops!
It was a full team effort to say the least, but we managed to get to the marina and into the slip the way we needed… So, overall it was a successful day if you ask me! Our grand entrance may not have been exactly like we imagined, limping in on one engine, with the help of a tow boat and 15 dock hands… But hey, we had a whole year ahead to redeem ourselves!
We fumbled for a bit with how we wanted the lines, hose, shore power, fenders, etc. to be set up. It was a bit overwhelming with so many people trying to direct us on what to do next. But, Captain Russell was lots of help, offering advice we knew we could trust. Once we got it to the “good enough” point, we unloaded the car with our personal belongings and headed to dinner with the Captains.
Captain Mike was a regular at the Cottage, so that’s where we decided to stop. The plan was to treat them to a nice beach-front dinner. Well, somehow Mike slipped away, and managed to cover the bill for us, and Captain Russell took care of the tip.
We had intended on showing our thanks for their help, yet we ended up being treated to dinner by them, sigh. They explained that we have been down on luck (and money) for quite a while, and we will have our hands full for quite some time, so they were happy to treat us. Putting it that way, they were right. Thanks for the dinner guys!
So, off to Marinatown we went! This time by land. Much to our surprise, there was a huge 65-foot yacht in our old slip. He must have fired up his engines to move as soon as we left the dock.
I went to say goodbye to our old neighbor, sailor Jerry, whom we had gotten off to a rough start with before purchasing the boat. We made light talk and joked that he couldn’t even get one good sunset without a large boat blocking his view. He said that he’ll miss us, and that we were great neighbors. I almost cried, since we had come such a long way from the first time we met… Well, not really, but it sounded cool for the story.
Well, I officially had enough of Marinatown, so it was time to depart again, but this time for good!
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