Moving Day

Maroon Bimini center is our old boat in the slip

One of the good things about living aboard a sailboat... if you don't like your location, you can move!  This is not exactly the case with us.  We love our dock mates, we love where we are in the marina, we love the floating dock.  We just don't like having to make a sharp right angle turn to get in and out with the prevailing winds making it a near certainty that we will smack another boat eventually.

Blue boat on the right hit us. 

That eventuality came last weekend... in reverse.  The 40+ ft. Sport Fisher that  I've come within a hair's breath of snagging many a time HIT US!  Just minor damage was done.  One side of our anchor roller was slightly bent out.  We probably won't even get it fixed... but in my mind, it's HUGE.

We had been looking at other vacant slips in the marina for a while and are on the "move up" list hoping for a rare 50 ft floating slip further down the dock.  This little crash galvanized us into action.  There is an old racer that is stripped down to bare decks sitting in a primo spot on dock 6.  We inquired about it and were told that the boat CAN"T move.  It has a 8 ft draft and is sitting in a hole.  The surrounding depths are less than 8 ft.  It couldn't be moved even if it's owner wanted to.  It would have been perfect.  Straight shot in with a long pier on one side.

Middle dock third boat from the end on the rt. side would be our new slip

Well, second place is a really wide slip on dock 7.  (our current slip is narrow - we rub bumpers on both sides because of a misplaced piling)  It's near the end and has an oversized dock box.  It's also nearly a straight shot in and out.  We should be able to leave the slip with little concern about what the winds will be doing when we return... well you know what I mean... we ALWAYS have to watch the weather, but I'm talking about normal conditions.

Now I wish to make it clear that we aren't just whiners who aren't up for a challenge.  I've docked this boat many times leaving witnesses glad it wasn't them who had to do it.  I know that we'll face docking conditions far more difficult than this while cruising.  I will even say that having experienced the changing conditions docking the boat in this slip has made Bruce and I better able to handle this boat.  But we're tired of having to do it nearly EVERY time we go out.

The new slip is on a fixed (not floating) pier which is not optimal.  It really doesn't even have any cleats for our lines, so we'll have to go over and work something our before we take the boat over  The dock doesn't run the length of the boat which will make it more of a challenge to step on and off of the deck.  All of these things we've weighted against the fact that we will be much more willing to take the boat out sailing... the sailing won!  Plus, an added bonus - the slip rent is cheaper!  Woo Hoo!

So, today we say goodbye to the folks on our dock.  Maybe Merlin will take a shot at our slip.  It can be US who helps THEM get in and out.