This was our third solo time on Miss gg away from the dock AND it was the
time of our first boat fight! Yep, there we were wearing our “marriage saver”
headsets and standing about 3 feet from each other... Walter frustrated, GA
upset cause the lines were left in different places by the haul out company....
more on this later.
I returned home late Monday from my driving trip to FL to see the Grand
Wonders during their Spring Break. A wonderful time but I was exhausted and the
last thing I wanted to do was get up early the next day and fetch our boat from
Oriental. There is also a lot of driving involved as we needed to leave one car
at each port and then go back and get them. But we had left the boat too long
past the finished haul out job. I was too tired to even look at the charts even
though all that had to be done was to write the reciprocals on the already
plotted directions from the first trip there. So I told the Captain if he would
put the reciprocals on the chart I would do the trip.
Attention all math teachers... I am good friends with at least two of you
ladies.... probably one of the easiest math tricks is reciprocals, right? I
think the man had not had his morning coffee when he charted our route. After
we left Whittier Creek's Sail Craft Services and maneuvered ever so slowly and
carefully through that tiny channel to the bay/river I read the chart and gave
Walter the direction. We soon realized we were off course! So I figured the
reciprocal, found the error & we were then on track. The man is an engineer
and can do all sort of difficult math.... ?????? Well, the GPS had all our
tracks from our last trip to Oriental so this was not really a problem. Just
good practice time but maybe I will do all the charting.....?
Alone at the Helm a dolphin startled me jumping up and swimming around
the boat... I was surprised because I didn't know we had dolphins this far
north! What fun.
We were able to mostly put our feet up and enjoy the 2hr plus journey.
When we are on the rivers & locking through or on the New Jersey ICW (Super
Storm Sandy damage) or a lot of other places up north with unforgiving granite
rock bottoms we will not be able to relax this way.
Now for our “fight”... urrgg! We were docking at our Home Port... it is
real tricky to back up this big boat into our slip with the wind blowing.... it
never seems to get easy as the wind is always different. So Walter was
repeating the procedure trying to get the boat lined up when I grabbed the
spring line and secured it on the starboard side. The port line was the
problem. Can't believe how dumb I was but I just stood there holding the end of
the rope that was on the deck. Walter was saying “make a loop”... GA just
stared at the rope end thinking I didn't learn this! Was I suppose to make some
fancy knot thing I didn't know!! Then I see the loop end on the forward Port
cleat... I think it is suppose to be there but it wasn't. Walter had to leave
the helm to help me all the while telling me our trainer, Captain Lenny, taught
you this! It is easy to make a bigger loop using the loop end of the line but I
was afraid to move it off the cleat. The lines are usually on the pile and I
grab them with the boat hook but this time the port lines were on the boat.
Walter was not happy with me and after a while (two days later!!) I had to
agree with him. :-0
After the boat was secured we had another discussion, much calmer this
time. I explained why I was doing what I did or should I say what I didn't do
and why and then he explained his frustration saying he was not mad at me. So I
then said, “What do you have to say to me?” expecting an apology... and he
said, “What do YOU have to say to ME?”.... then we both laughed! I think I'm
still a little mad but doggone it! I am having a hard time getting this stupid grin
off my face!!
Conclusion: I LOVE our marriage (48 yrs) and WE NEED A LOT MORE PRACTICE (docking)!!
Walter had just
finished installing his davits he designed to hold our dinghy above the transom
on Miss gg. After three days he was done and trailered the dinghy to a boat
ramp near the Marina. He launched it and motored to the empty slip next to our
boat. Then quickly pulled Miss gg forward by shortening the forward lines and
lined up the dinghy behind the swim platform at back of boat. When we want to
go ashore or exploring a creek while anchored out the swim platform is where we
will board the dinghy. 
