Wednesday, June 13, 2012

I woke up ate my breakfast, and then proceeded to get my docking lines ready for my planned stop at the Elizabeth City free docks. The dock was about five miles down river so I figure about an hour to get down there. Now last night when that storm came in the wind swung about 180 degrees to the NE. The guide books tell you that if there is any easterly component to the wind that you do not want to use these docks. Any way I make my way down the river and arrive at the dock. The reason that they tell you that Easterly winds and this dock are  not compatible is that the wind, which was now blowing pretty strong, will be coming on your beam. I pick out the slip that I plan to pull into. Then I aim for the slip just up wind of it. You  have to pull in with some speed or else you will lose steerage. So you aim for the slip just up wind and you give the boat some throttle, At the last second you turn into your slip, and as soon as the bow gets past the first pair of pilings you throw the boat into reverse and give it full  throttle. This stops you. You don't want to hit the dock. At the dock there were other sailors  waiting to catch your lines. Actually they were really doing  their own thing there but when they see you pulling in they drop what they are doing and run over to help you in. This is a courtesy that other boaters show to each other, because they know from their own experience what you are going through.
 At the dock there is a welcoming committee the leader of which is named Gus. Now Gus is a country guy who, while sitting in his yellow pick up truck, loves to tell you stories,and jokes, and also fill you in on what you need to know in order to be comfortable here. Now they have this  tradition  that if at least 5 boats pull in, they will serve them  a wine and cheese party. Unfortunelly only three boats showed up. so no party.
    Except for this 20 foot sailboat, that I saw up on the canal, all the boats that I run up against are larger then mine. Of the other two sailboats that pulled in, one was a 41 foot Morgan Out Island, and the other is a 47 foot Vagabond. I find that a lot of these boats have some pretty interesting people on them. For Example the Morgan had this couple, now retired, who were teachers in Florida, and lived on the boat for 31 years. They raised their children on the boat. The 47 foot Vagabond  is crewed by this young couple that had just returned from the Bahamas. The guy, Chuck, very quiet and easy going, does boat deliveries for a living.
     For example:  A person buys a boat from someone in Puerto Rico. The new owner does not want to sail the boat home, either no time or no experience. So he hires a boat delivery guy to make the move. This all sounds like a really nice job for the guy doing the delivery, but what happens more then not is that along the way the boat starts to show problems. Now the boat delivery guy is not intimately familiar with this boat, and could have a lot of difficulty fixing it. A lot of boats are not up to par with their maintenance, and also work done on the boat could be very shoddy.
    So anyway Chuck only has to work when he has to, and usually so he can finance his next trip to the Bahamas. The girl, Dale, is this petite, very attractive, over the road tractor trailer driver, she owns her own rig, and drives all over the country.  She has been doing this since she was 22 years old. They both live in a log cabin that they built, which hangs over a bluff in the Maryland woods. I also use to live in a cabin, in the eighties, up near Bear Mountain. So needless to say, we both have a lot in common.