T&T: Twins/Singles & the law of perverse opposites

[Albin43SDtr]

'Lo Doug and All,

At 01:24 PM 12/12/2008, Doug wrote:
>Whether single or twins one can always count on some marine constants.  For
>a perfect landing under horrible conditions there will be no people
>watching.  For sailing or docking under ideal conditions there will be a
>crowd watching you make the process a comedy for all to enjoy and a star on
>utube.

And then there are those fantastic short periods of time when you are 
totally out of sync with the "marine constants".......

In Dec 1991, we moved our 46' sailboat from New Jersey to Panama 
City. For 8.5 years the boat sat in our front yard while I built the 
interior. So, when we brought the boat down from New Jersey, I 
obviously had not practiced maneuvering the boat for 8.5 years. 
Adequate time to loose the "finesse" of boat handling. The fourth or 
fifth night out, while approaching an unlit marina dock in twilight, 
I did not notice the current at the dock (no current 30' from the 
dock). End result, the current caught the bow, so I immediately 
corrected, uh, well - over-corrected with the result that the stern 
hit the dock. Actually, lightly touched it, but the pilings were 
loose, so the whole dock flexed with loud creaking noises. The sole 
witness was so drunk that he barely looked up.  Lucky once!

The boat had a diesel engine and a diesel furnace, so I had installed 
lots of fuel capacity - 250 gallons total in 4 tanks. When we got to 
Key West, we had sufficient fuel to motor all the way to Panama City 
if necessary, but decided to refuel anyway.

I tried to call the fuel dock (I forget the name - the only one in 
operation on the west end of Key West at that time) - , but they 
didn't monitor the radio. So we asked the water taxi guy about it and 
he explained where it was. It was at the far end of a channel. On the 
south side it was lined with docked boats - all bow in, loaded with 
"spectators" sitting on the aft decks, most with refreshments in 
hand, watching, watching, watching. I could feel a thousand 
eyes....just watching. On the north side was a huge yacht with an 
all-female crew - dressed in uniforms of short-shorts and mini-tops. 
"Oh, Great!" Remembering the earlier incident at the dock, I told my 
wife that I would make one try and then make a "strategic retreat", 
she agreed instantly.

The fuel dock was oriented such that the end pointed directly up the 
channel, with 70-80' or so maneuvering room on the south side. The 
mega-yacht took up the whole north side of the dock and then some. It 
looked like a straight-in port-side docking would be very simple. As 
we approached the dock, a wind, current - who knows - carried the bow 
south - away from the dock. OH, uh, darn! I throttled down to assess 
the situation. The whole boat was now moving sidewise, so I turned 
the bow to port, so as to keep off the docked boats. One of the 
ladies on the mega-yacht said, quite loudly, "Oh no, surely he's not 
going to try to dock stern in!" I wanted to yell back something like: 
"Oh, no, lady, just trying to get the, uh, heck out of here!" But, 
instead, just kept the boat slowly turning to port as it was carried 
away from the dock. As the boat turned perpendicular to the dock, I 
eased up the throttle and continued the turn. In a minute or so, the 
starboard side was parallel to the dock about a foot and a half off 
and adjacent to the fuel pump. My wife and I just handed the 
attendants the dock lines --  as if we had done it this way a 
thousand times -- and sighed a gigantic sigh of relief. Out of sync 
with the "marine constants" - lucky twice!

As we were taking on a full load of fuel and water, a 20-25' (?) 
center console boat with 4 husky guys and humongous twin outboards 
attempted to dock behind us. After 4 tries - no, I'm not kidding - 
one attendant sarcastically shouted to them to just throw him the bow 
line and he would pull them to the dock, and then they could throw 
him the stern line and he would pull the stern up to the 
dock.   Marine constants at work!

As the stern cleared the dock upon our departure, one of the 
mega-yacht ladies shouted to another: "Oh, no wonder he could dock 
stern-in, he's from Oregon (hailing port was in Oregon) and came all 
the way through the Panama Canal"! The boat was documented in Oregon 
as I was in the military and the Norfolk USCG office said they wanted 
a permanent address on the documentation application and that was as 
close to a permanent address that I had.

Another old axiom is applicable: Even a blind hog can find an acorn 
once in a while.....


Take care and be safe.

Wayne
Celestial
Albin 43 Sundeck
Near Panama City, FL