"Roger Long" wrote:

Good plan.

We're in training mode here so I'm trying to use our home dock to
teach us the things we'll need to know elsewhere. Just like moving
most of the sail handling lines from the cockpit to the mast, we're
doing many things the hard way for a greater purpose.

When we come into a strange dock, Bob puts ***at least*** 6 lines out.
Two bow, 2 stern and 2 midships. They are attached to the boat and go
through the fairleads and coiled draped back over the lifelines. That
way no matter which way we come into the dock, there's always an
appropriate line already rigged AND attached to the boat.

I can't tell you how many times I've seen boaters approaching the
dock, and then have to go looking in the lockers for lines. Usually,
but not always, power boaters. I've even seen a shrimp boat coming
into the gas dock at Palmer Johnson in Thunderbolt who threw a dock
line to the dock master without securing the other end to the boat.

I don't jump. Ever. I may step off if the boat is close enough to do
that and if the dock isn't too different in level from the deck, but
that's really rare. We had a visitor that attempted to leap from our
deck with a line at the Dismal Swamp Visitor's Center, and he slipped
and went down between the two boats and almost into the water. He was
really badly bruised in the ribs and it was fortunate that he got back
on deck before the boats 'met'.

I try to give the midships line to a dock person if there is one. We
rarely come into a dock where there is no dock person. (I am not too
proud to make it clear when I call that we need assistance) In that
case, Bob has to get the boat up close enough to some piling or other
attachment point so that I can put the line around it and secure it.


grandma Rosalie