If you wanted a good laugh

[ris]

You should have been at the Palm Coast Marina on the 5th of April at 3 pm. Believe it or not but we have never been to a marina where they let boats stay overnight except when we visited Herschel to ask a million questions right after we bought our 26X. We really did not pay attention to the marina just to his boat. So we are going into this marina supposed to go 2 slots past the red boat to slot 312 and there is no one from the office available. There are 3 red boats in sight, my mind is in hyper drive, Capt is driving, I am hanging fenders, putting the dodger down, wind is 25 mph and we have never done this before. Each slot has 2 posts at back of slip, with short 8 foot long 2 foot wide concrete dock on starboard, concrete walk in front. The first thing that happened as we enter the marina having no idea where to go or how to dock this boat or tie up in the proper manner is, we met 2 Angels. You might not believe in Angels but I do after that day. I guess from the bewildered looks on our faces the Angels realized we have no idea what we are doing, of course being Angels they were right. We even heard them speak. "What slip are you headed for one yells over the wind" I reply back in awe, which is proper when speaking to Angels. 312 I call as they run down the walkway saying to us "Go slow and straight ahead. In between two 37 foot Island Packets is a space about 6 ft wide with the number 312 for another boat, they each board one of the Packets pick up those sticks with plastic caps all the wile calling out to the captain go slow take your time you can do this. I forgot to mention there is a 50 ft. catamaran about 27 feet behind the slip we are supposed to slip into. I think a better word would be crash pad not slip. After almost clipping one of the Packets and almost backing into the Cat, the capt said "Take this wheel". I did take over and in a lull in the wind, bouncing between the two post in the water and the 2 Angels with the sticks pushing the boat all the while giving me instruction, we completed our first landing or slipping or whatever. I shut the motor down sat down in complete exhaustion from stress one of the Angels asked "Would you have some rope on board to tie up your boat?" The Capt. replied yes we have rope but no idea how to tie up the boat so it will not hit the boat on each side. Our boat did not even reach back to the 2 posts in the water. Of course there are no problems when you have Angels helping you, so they showed us the proper way to tie up the boat so it could move up and down with the tide and side to side a little without hitting the other boats. I am certainly glad that both these Angels were female cause it would have been embarrassing to be seen Kissing male Angels as we stepped on the dock. And yes I had to throw away my undies as they were quite stained.

[mrron_tx]

OUTSTANDING That has to be the absolute best Marina encounter I've ever read I think Y'all are gonna do just fine ......just remember to radio ahead for Angels Ron.

[Sumner]

Good job, but you also explained the reason I never go into marinas and always anchor out ,

Sumner

============================
1300 miles to the Bahamas and back -- 2015

The MacGregor 26-S

The Endeavour 37

Trips to Utah, Idaho, Canada, Florida

Mac-Venture Links

[Gazmn]

Go slow,rudders & some CB down; Next to a full box of wipes & extra undies, I learned to bring lots of extra line, 1/2" is better, for marina docking & an extra long boat pole to make up for our extra short & narrow boats. In Duck Key I even used my paddle board to run lines to the aft docking poles. Get a quick on line lesson on spring lines on YouTube. I prefer crossing my lines like many: Port boat cleat to Starboard pole or dockside...
Take into account wind, current & tide float range; don't be afraid to take help when angels offer. I got no problem buying extra beers for help

At Hawks Cay I got fully prepared with a quick run to home depot with a couple of 100' braided 1/2" lines for 20 bucks. I used it as backup and extra to my long docklines, forward & aft. Since I was staying there for over a month, I was able to rig a long line that would help guide me into & keep me in my slip.Look for the tripled black line, run low to catch boat. I had a lot of very expensive & larger neighbors I didn't want to hit & I was alone.





P.S.
The Mac is highly maneuverable in reverse. It's even easier to handle: both rudders down, turn around face aft, wheel behind you thumbs down for the side you want to steer to, go slow

[Herschel]

Only another hundred marinas to go, all different! But when you get back home, you will be the forum expert on marina docking, and you will be able to do it in your sleep! Hang in there.

[seahouse]

P.S.
The Mac is highly maneuverable in reverse. It's even easier to handle: both rudders down, turn around face aft, wheel behind you thumbs down for the side you want to steer to, go slow

Good one Gaz! Standing facing rearward, with the pedestal in FRONT of you (step around it) is also an old sailboat trick that works well in a Mac too! Even the throttle action is easily accessible and intuitive then. (Unless there is too much on the binnacle to reach around).

[mrron_tx]

P.S.
The Mac is highly maneuverable in reverse. It's even easier to handle: both rudders down, turn around face aft, wheel behind you thumbs down for the side you want to steer to, go slow

Good one Gaz! Standing facing rearward, with the pedestal in FRONT of you (step around it) is also an old sailboat trick that works well in a Mac too! Even the throttle action is easily accessible and intuitive then. (Unless there is too much on the binnacle to reach around).

I have wondered about these practices..... and have seen the "big boats " do it.....I just haven't tried it yet But I will Ron.

[budgates]

The first time I tried docking in a slip it was getting dark and there was another boat right behind me. I passed our slip while watching for the number and the boat behind me slid in before I could do anything. Not wanting to raise a fuss I just took the next open slip and hoped we wouldn't get kicked out in the middle of the night. The next day I found out that the guy who had been assigned to the slip that we took saw us there and decided that he didn't want to launch in the dark anyhow so he spent the night in the parking lot.

[Doug W]

I have wondered about these practices..... and have seen the "big boats " do it.....I just haven't tried it yet But I will Ron.

Chuckle... I actually do it quite often in our local marina primarily because of the crazy looks I get as we are backing around the open air restaurant and into a tight little space to temporarily tie up!

Ris, loved your story! Rule number one... get both rudders into the water and your dagger/center board so you can maneuver! We had a similar story up at Bayfield city marina in the Apostle Islands!

Doug & Angie

[Baha]

I can wait to try out this type of slip. Here in the UK, we have proper finger slip pontoons on tidal moorings...makes everything pretty easy!

Having said that, the first time was an adventure. I ended up backing up to (into?) the fueling dock and tying up there to fill the ballast and get the rudders and daggerboard down. Once you do the, the rest is a lot easier.

The good news, if I can do it (especially single handed) anybody can...

[C Buchs]

My first time in a slip resulted in hitting the dock by the restaurant hard enough to get everyone’s attention. Then I got sideways in the current pinned against the next row with my stays hitting the metal roof. That made a lot of noise! Fortunately we came away with only a bent boat pole.

Jeff

[DaveC426913]

Yep. First time I pulled into a Mediterranean slip, I was just as panicked.

Got my nose in to the pier only to find the stern moorings about 5 yards aft of my transom. Too late. Oh well.

I don't think they get a lot of boats under 30 feet.

My neighour was gracious enough to let me raft up against him.