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Dick Locke wrote:
On Tue, 24 Feb 2004 17:11:30 GMT, Rosalie B.
wrote:
OK forgot to say - fixed docks with short finger piers but our slip
has a full length dock beside it. We have only about 2 foot tides
there though so a fixed dock isn't so bad.
Fixed docks with a 2-foot normal tide are usually OK but I had two
incidents with them...once the tide was so low the boat had grounded
in the slip and I couldn't get from the dock to the deck till the tide
came in.
Well what did it hurt to wait? Or just use a gangplank. We've been
on the ground in the slip (not at our home marina, but at Hilton Head
in SC) and had to wait until high tide to leave because the boat
wasn't floating.
Then in Mobile, the storm surge from TS Isidore was about three feet
above normal high tide causing all sorts of line adjustment problems
and the docks to go under water for a few hours.
Did you look at my picture of our boat in the dock after Isabel?
http://photomail.photoworks.com/shar...s/KHX/At3xUbeV
The marina pictures were at LOW tide the next day (Friday).
[The first (1-4) pictures are of Bob on the roof of the porch roof
sweeping the leaves and branches off. Then are some (5-9) pictures
from the upstairs window of the house showing that there wasn't any
damage except leaves and some branches on the ground at our house
although we were without electricity for several days. We live up on
a hill about 1/4 mile above the Potomac.]
Low tide after Isabel off the Potomac River down near the Chesapeake
Bay
#10 - marina from the access road
#11 - haulout slip (under water)
#12 - covered slips
#13 - boardwalk beside covered slips
#14 - Spinnaker's restaurant
#15 and #16 - high tide mark in the yard of the first house on the
road next to the marina (the house is beside where #10 was taken)
#17 and #18 - Gas dock and A dock
#19 steps of marina office (which normally are next to the office)
#20-21 our boat from the docks
#22 - dinghy of next boat from beside our boat. I couldn't get on the
boat because it was too high over the dock.
The tidal surge went up to the top of the pilings - about 5 feet above
the dock, which is normally one or two feet above the water. We had
our boat tied with spring lines in the slip (as did the people that
didn't go to anchor or have their boats hauled) with the lines to the
pilings on the far side of the dock because we only have cleats on our
side.
I took the pictures from partway out the dock because Bob wanted to
know how the boat fared, and he didn't want to wade out there and I
didn't mind. It was difficult because the water was up to my knees
and I had to get over or under all the lines from our side of the dock
to the other side. When I got down there I sat on the steps next to
the boat to rest. That's where the last picture was taken of the
dinghy of our neighbor on top of the dock in the last picture.
In any case - my point is - if you know how to secure a boat to a
fixed dock (and IMHO you SHOULD know) it is perfectly possible to do
so without a problem even with a high tide. All those shrimp boats
in SC and GA and northern FL with 6 to 8 foot tides - most of them are
at fixed docks. We are at a fixed concrete dock here in Marathon with
about a 2 foot normal tide. (I think they have fixed docks here
mostly because of the hurricane season.)
So you should know how to have the boat safely in the slip even in an
extra high or extra low tide. I think that's something that a
sailor/boater should know. If you have a fixed dock and a tide that
isn't too great - that's a good opportunity to practice so that if you
go somewhere and they say - you can stay on the gas dock tonight (gas
docks are often fixed docks), and BTW we have 6.5 foot tides and it's
high tide now (and your boat is about even with the dock at that
point) you have some clue as to how to proceed.
It may be easier to have floating docks (although I always have to
have a step stool on the dock to get off our boat if there are
floating docks), but unless you never intend to go anywhere outside
your own marina (and if that is so - why even have a boat), then you
need to know stuff like how to tie the boat up in a variety of
situations - face dock, or slip with a 4 point tie, floating dock or
fixed dock, cleats or pilings.
grandma Rosalie