Wednesday, 25 November
You know the old saying, “there’s an app for that….” Well never is that more true than in sailing. There are apps to report the wind, the predicted wind, to determine and some that provide tidal information. So with all these apps you would think we would have an upper hand in figuring out what to expect when and be able to effectively plan. Our problem is that the apps seem to always contradict each other or even themselves a lot of the time. 
This morning was supposed to have 10-15 knot winds. Thankfully we had assistance from the dockhand getting off the dock as we set off with winds that were definitely blowing closer to 25-30, as evidenced by the waves we were pounding into. (Not quite captured effectively in this photo.) At one point it felt like we were sitting still and not moving. But the instruments showed we were moving along at 6 mph, thanks to the current.
Our daily dolphin sightings started early. Shortly after we left Dataw Island Marina we spotted a few and they continued as we motored along with a pod of for quite a ways.
As Bob is focused on finding deeper water and day markers in the water, Christina gets easily distracted with each dolphin sighting, similar to a dog when they see a squirrel.
We had planned our departure time to leave the marina near high tide, to transit the one slightly shallow area easily and to arrive at the next marina at slack water so there would be less current to contend with as we maneuvered into the marina. With the greater tide swings due to the full moon, we didn’t need to worry about the shoaling during high tide as we always seemed to have 9 more feet under the keel than the charted depths.
With the strong currents pushing us along we were moving along at over 6 mph even after Bob pulled back the throttle and we approached the marina over an hour earlier than expected, which meant the tide was still going out and we would have to contend with the strong current.
Thankfully the dock master arranged for us to go into a slip that was straight in from the channel, and therefore we wouldn’t have to maneuver through any fairways or tight situations.
The dockmaster wanted to orient us in a way that would be easiest in and easiest out in the morning of our departure. But those two orientations were in different directions.
It is easier to dock and maneuver when you are heading into the current, and as we were arriving earlier than expected this meant that we arrived before slack water which meant that we were heading into the current as we approached, and a bow in orientation was best. But when we were going to leave on Friday morning the current would be running the opposite way, meaning it would be significantly easier if we would be able to be docked stern in and go straight out of the slip in forward when we departed.
So after we were safely docked in the slip it was agreed that in an hour or two, when the tide was changing the dockmaster and dock hand would come back and we would back out of the slip and turn around and back in.
The dockmaster said they do it all the time with boats and said we didn’t even have to start the engine if we didn’t want to, because they were going to attach a long line to the stern, walk the boat back turn it around and walk it back into the slip. We didn’t know how this was really going to work with another boat right next tour. Bob opted to have the engine running, and assist in the maneuver using the bow thruster as necessary.
Things did not go totally as planned, and it was a good thing Bob had control of the boat because as they were trying to control the stern to rotate the boat the bowsprit and anchors were becoming close friends with the dinghy on the boat next to us. Bob had to use the bow thruster to push us away, which meant the stern was moving even further out of reach for the dockmaster who was losing hold of 100 feet of dock line attached to the stern.
Eventually Bob got the boat clear and turned around and safely backed into the slip and securely tied. (Yeap two dockings within a few hours of each other.) We still would like to experience how the proposed maneuver was supposed to work, but for now we enjoyed a relaxing afternoon.
