I sailed ECHO into her slip at the dock today. On the way out of
the harbor, 25 minutes of fighting some head winds and current, the
engine over heated. I restarted it after it cooled and found there was
no water coming out of the exhaust. It was working fine at the dock
I tested it for 15 minutes before my crew showed up and the problem
I had last week seemed fixed. I wonder if I sucked up some plastic
or something in the harbor, or perhaps the impeller went--I'll find out
tomorrow.

I was planning on running the engine just long enough to dock.
However, conditions were perfect to sail in. It was the first time I
sailed a big boat into a narrow slip. I've sailed big boats into end tie
situations many times, but never straight into a slip under sail or in this
case bare poles.

Winds were light and nearly straight into the slip until I was three boat
lengths away and then the wind suddenly backed 60 degrees and built
from a breath of wind, to a steady 7 knots from nearly abeam. I though
I'd have trouble with it, and I steered to windward a bit as a precaution,
but it didn't seem to matter much--the boat tracked nicely. I had enough
momentum to coast right in. It was fun.

My crew were not sure what to do. I briefed my two key players on what
to do ahead of time, and one was out of position. I told my crew not to
flake the main, and they went ahead and did it anyway, and then dropped
the sail and did it again. I had to sail past the dock and then back to it
to
give them more time. A bull horn next to me at the helm would have
helped, or a little forceful yelling would have been in order.

My main lesson learned was I should have put my #2 sailor on the helm
and I should have been in the middle of the boat directing the show where
everyone could hear me. There were a few small problems that were
not resolved as promptly as I would have liked. My crew had trouble
getting my light air drifter down and the boat came in a little faster than
I
wanted.

My second lesson learned was to not let a crew get side tracked in a time
critical situation like this. Everyone was out of position when I wanted
the
light air drifter taken down.

Bart