Captain Chris Yacht Services, in the form of Chris and Alyse Caldwell, continued their work today to mold us into proficient boat co-captains of “Next to Me”. They certainly have sufficient skill to rise to the occasion, and when we (eventually) take the boat out by ourselves for the first time, we’ll find out whether we were good students.
This morning Alyse walked us through navigation instruction: reading navigation charts, understanding the buoys and markers along the route, some “rules of the road” (who has right-of-way under various conditions), and the meaning of various whistle signals and lights on boats we’ll see and hear along the way. Chris talked us through anchoring procedures, then they walked us through steps to disconnect everything (electricity, water, dock lines, etc) to be ready to leave the dock . . . and THEN WE LEFT!!
Bob began at the helm under Chris’s instruction, and Cathryn was on deck (lines, fenders, etc) under Alyse’s instruction. We discussed anchoring procedures and learned when we dropped the anchor that it inexplicably had a “Figure 8 Knot” about 50 feet into the chain, !?$#&@!@!! Why??? Who knows, but the anchor rode (line connecting the anchor to the boat) could not be let out more than that as a result. Thank goodness for a shake-down cruise! Moving the knot to the end of the chain is the first of tonight’s homework.
While at anchor we took a lunch break and continued talking all things boating. Bob and Cathryn switched roles after lunch, and we headed to a marina to practice docking at fixed docks, something we’ve never seen in the Pacific Northwest, Canada or Alaska. Tidal swings in our area are so great (15 feet from low to high tide is common), that all marinas have floating docks that go up and down with the water. In this part of the country where tidal swings are typically 1 –3 feet, fixed docks that don’t float are common. Next we practiced docking at floating docks. We each took turns and worked out some of the issues around wind and current and how they affect docking too.
Returning to Harbour Isle Marina, the 4 of us sat on the sundeck for a de-briefing and to get our Homework Assignment for tonight. It was another very instructive day, and best of all: we had fun! Chris and Alyse are very skilled instructors – calm and easy in their style despite constantly instructing us on how to do things, or correcting things we do incorrectly – no small feat!
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