Of Fog and Hard Docks

This morning I woke to bright sun straight up but thick fog everywhere else. Cup of coffee in hand I de-rigged the dinghy (we really need to find a name for her). This time I stowed the rigging in the dinghy, well lashed down of course, to see how that worked under tow. Once Sinan was up and everything ready to go we untied. At this point Sinan decided to do one of his more creative pull outs. He decided that we would turn Attitudes around in the slip and pull out forward. The neighbors had left so there was plenty of room. I pushed the bow off and got onboard to turn her around. I did so quite handily and started forward to leave when something tweaked my ear. Turning around I realized that Sinan had not pushed the stern off and jumped on like I thought but had stayed on the dock, line in hand, and was now standing on the opposite finger pier!
Wind and Attitudes orientation were not great for me to back up to pick him up but no problem! Our original finger pier was the super long end pier. I told him to throw the line in and meet me there. I would pick him up with no problem..... Oooops

I pulled over to the other side slowly enough for Sinan to catch up and he grabbed hold of the shroud and attempted (I thought) to hop on board. For some reason he seemed to be having trouble so I kept her into the pier so he could get on. Oh well I still have some of the blue paint for the scrape.... Turns out Sinan was trying to push us out sideways before getting all the way on. ( yeah right: full keel, 9 tons)

Once out I found the fog even thicker than I thought. Out came all 3 GPS devices (GPS, iPad, Laptop) and yes Helen once clear of the rocks I switched the iPad to the Ship Finder App. Luckily Ben kept course pretty well although wind, waves and rips occasionally threw him into a tizzy. The fog gradually cleared, as I passed Colvos Rock it was about 0.8nm visibility. As we got to Marrowstone pockets of clear started to show up. A bit of Marrowstone, A bit of whidbey and even Mt Baker peeked through. Finally I gratefully put down my bronze fog horn. Lifting and blowing that thing once a minute made me wish I had fixed my electric horn!

At this point it became painfully apparent how bad the current really was. For quite a stretch our SOG ranged around 1.9 knots! I started wondering if my propeller was really turning! Up a ways I finally saw 6.7! Oh boy the current must have turned, yeah no not really, just a rip going my way for a bit. We were soon down to between 2 and 3 knots. No matter though we were coming into Port Townsend bay. A bit more dodging of log bombs and sailboats and we headed into Pt Hudson.

I radioed in as we came close and was in luck. Someone had canceled and the end of a 70' slip was mine. That was the last slip in the marina. Port tie which meant the strong west wind would be pushing me off the dock. My first try was a resounding non success which left me trying to clear the child fishing off the end of the next boat with my bow and not back in to the sailboat who followed me in. I managed an admirably tight 360 in the entrance and made a second attempt. It was not my finest moment however with the help of all nearby boaters we managed to get tied up without hitting: outboard of boat in front, little kid fishing off stern to side, expensive side of big motorboat to side, most of the dock. There was no yelling or cursing involved - although one wag did ask if I didn't have a reverse. He obviously didn't see my first attempt. After completing tie up of boat and dinghy we watched Carol Hasse sail her boat in to her slip straight upwind with hardly a murmur.

Our plan is to stay 2 nights and since the 70 foot slip is booked I get to move to a different slip, also port tie, and try this all again. I'm hoping that I'll be able to shift the boat before the wind comes up tomorrow. Also would be great if the neighbor is not in the slip, but that might be too much to ask.

We strolled over to say hi to Carol on her renovated folkboat. She wanted to hear all about the sail's performance and was quite happy to hear how satisfied I was. The topic of carrot juice came up. OK Sinan asked where the nearest grocery store that might have carrot juice was. Carol kindly offered a ride to a nearby store. ( I did ask if she had seen me dock, she claimed ignorance of the whole affair.)

Back on the boat now, empty dark and stormy at my side, just about to hit the sack. The wind is still blowing like the freaks of heck out there.

All in all a great day!