T&T: an afternoon well spent

[Randy Pickelmann]

This afternoon we had the pleasure of attending the Calvert County Watermens
Association's waterfront festival at Solomon's Island.  Although the Crab Soup
Cookoff was memorable, the main event was the boat docking contest.  The drill
went something like this.  A gun was fired and the contestant would pull out
of the designated slip and reverse into a different slip about 75' away and
put three dock lines on the pilings. These boats were all 40 something feet,
single screw workboats and they did this single-handed.  The boats were
divided into three classes; charterboats, commercial crab boats and old wooden
boats.  Several of the boats did this operation in 45 seconds, from the time
they left the slip to the time they had the final dock line in place.  The
good ones did it in 20-30 something seconds.  The shootout between the best
two boats at the end was won in just a hair over 16 seconds!    It was a sight
to behold...these big things backing in at full speed, belching a cloud of
black smoke and pushing a 2' wake with their stern, slipping between the
pilings with about a foot on either side and stopping on a dime so the skipper
could drop the docklines in place.  I was so inspired that I wanted to go back
to MORNING STAR and practice backing into the slip.  The Admiral, who is wise
beyond her years, nipped that in the bud!
Regards,
Randy Pickelmann
MORNING STAR
lying in Solomon's, MD