Early this morning (7 a.m.) I was up and chatting with a number of boaters we have met along the way. Bucket List, Spiritus, Easy Go and a few others. Wayward came down the river, too, and was intending on taking fuel aboard but the fuel dock was rather full in no small part because we were docked there. So they decided to go back up river to a different marina for fuel We hopped in the dingy and went down there to see them for a while, and when we got back, the dock master was anxious to move us. Great I thought. We'll just mosey on over to the other wall.
Yeah, were it so simple. She directed us to the small inlet they use to get boats into the travel lift. Boats were tied to both sides of the inlet. And no, not cute petite craft, but big honkers like us. That left us about 20 feet of water width-wise . We are 15 feet wide. 5 feet... no big deal right? My view point is a little different driving a 25 ton boat with no brakes that reacts unpredictably to the wind. Heighten state of awareness is an understatement.
 |
| That's us on the right and the inlet we went down |
We got off the fuel dock, and I lined it up and proceeded in, noting that every boat along the inlet was now littered with owners and crew out in force with boat hooks and fenders. I can think of any number of euphemisms, some less refined than others; but suffice to say, it was a frigg'n tight fit made more difficult by the lack of bite on the props due to some damage from whatever we caught on the bottom of the Erie..
But we made it in without incident. And we are staged right next to the lift. So maybe if the stars are aligned correctly we could be hauled tomorrow, and new props and support strut put in place.
After the canvas guy leaves we'll probably take a dinghy ride into the lake and go swimming. Did I mention they have some
indigenous water snakes here?
No comments:
Post a Comment