Rewind: This would be great if we could get our boat in & out of the slip!

If you look to the left of this photo you can see how intimately close our boat is with our neighbors.

It's April and we have just bought the boat, named her, stayed on her, started cleaning her up a little and then, of course, we want to go sailing! One problem, the boat next to us is huge and there is probably only one to two feet between us. The fit is super tight. We are pretty confident on our sailing skills. However, this is a new idea of a problem for us!

I am sitting on our boat thinking, "Well, sitting out here is nice. I can layout. We can stay overnight, barbecue, have a couple friends over....". "After all, we haven't sold our Capri - Foxie yet. We can always sail on that boat."

At least we can hang out in the cockpit!

After about a week, we luck out though. Our dock neighbors have left! We can practice getting in and out without them there. -Even better, they are gone for a few weeks! So we practice. It doesn't go so well. We hit the dock. We barely miss hitting other boats around us. How the hell do people do this?! I consider us to be physically competent people. But for some reason, this is a super hard talent to acquire. We try about 20 times in the 2 weeks our neighbors are gone. There is a slight improvement in our but we really don't want to risk ruining our neighbors boat and end up with a huge bill to repair all the damage we are sure to cause.

April turns to May. Well, we can fix up our boat. Maybe we just sail on days that our neighbors aren't there? I want to cry. Matt wants to get a zillion fenders to put all around our boat. So we get the fenders. We are still fearful. At least there are a few other boat projects to do. I make curtains. Matt organizes the boat. Our neighbors show up one morning & Matt tells them our fear of smashing into their boat. They totally understand. -They are actually really, lovely people. And they tie up their boat closer to their dockside. I think we gained a second foot of space between us. However, the trepidation is still there. -Even after all the people on our dock tell us that they've all hit a neighbor or two's boat at one time or another. -And that it's no big deal. Right......

Well, who comes to the rescue but my dad! It's the end of May and my parents were going to come up anyway. We are all vaccinated by now and it's been over a year since seeing each other in person. My dad suggests that we physically push the boat out from the dock and jump on. We do this. I am armed with a roving fender, to ward our boat off of any other boats. My dad holds a deck broom/scrubber also to fend us away from our dock neighbors. Matt is at the helm. We back out and get into the channel. We go under the bridge. (We have a tabernacle mast which I will explain later.) And we go to the fuel dock. We empty our holding tank!!! -Another long story. And we fill up on fuel. The waves are too large for us to actually go out of the harbor that day but we go back to our slip and make it in with no incident! Success!!!

My dad figuring out the solution. *Notice our abundance of fenders!

The next day we are actually able to go out sailing and anchor. We get to enjoy our boat the way she is meant to be enjoyed! That said, it's a boat and there will be more to overcome in the next few months. -That will be explained in the next few days.

Sailing!!!

Thanks Mom & Dad!

Thanks so much for reading!