sherwindu wrote:
"Rosalie B." wrote:

OK, I'm trying to visualize this - originally I thought it would be
better to come in going upstream which would be the natural way to
approach the slip, against the current so you would have more control.

In this case the slip is oriented perpendicular to the current. My approach
to the slip takes me beam to the current.

Why? If I am coming up a river, I am parallel to the current. If I
am going down the river, I'm parallel to the current. It is only when
I turn to go into the slip that I am beam to the current. I was
thinking of getting to the area of the slip as part of the approach -
not just the actual turn into the slip.

How about leaving a spring line on the upstream piling,

There is no upstream piling, just the iron jetty protruding into the river.

Are there no line attachments on the jetty? Like cleats or something
of that sort?

and coming the
other way (going with the current), and putting the side of the boat
next to the pier/dock which has the spring line on it while still
parallel to the current. Have the non-engine person pick up this line
and cleat it down fairly short a bit aft of center and then warp
yourself around this piling into the slip, using the current and the
engine to help you get perpendicular to it.

There is no time to do all this. The current will have pushed me into the
next slip before I can make use of this spring line. We would have to
enter quickly and that puts us at more risk of hitting the wall at the end
of the slip. Going slowly allows the current time to push us over.

There is time if you get the line before you do any turning beam to
the current while you are still going with (or against) the current.

We have a problem with our boat being a modified full keel, with a lot
of windage and very heavy, so that I can't - by myself- hold the boat
against current or wind if there is any that is significant. Also,
our slip is longer than our boat, so if the boat is nicely in the
slip, we can't reach the last pilings - we have to do that on the way
into the slip. But it doesn't look like you have those problems - so
after you get the boat secured in the middle, you let the current put
the boat parallel to the slip. The stern won't be able to swing too
far because it is cleated down.