NavList:
A Community Devoted to the Preservation and Practice of Celestial Navigation and Other Methods of Traditional Wayfinding
Re: Wind & Current Navigation
From: Jared Sherman
Date: 2003 Apr 18, 00:03 -0400
From: Jared Sherman
Date: 2003 Apr 18, 00:03 -0400
Dan, I've been told there is a discrete [read: if they didn't pay to watch the show, what do you need an audience for? ] way to learn docking and handling skills. Take the boat out to someplace out of traffic in shallow water. Drop a two by four with weights or anchors over the side. Congratulations, now you've got an instant dock. Have a good time docking with it, practice where you can't hurt anything, then don't worry about it. I'm also a firm believer in "no jumping" at the dock. Possibly because I'm no gymnast. But a couple of good dock lines, long enough to THROW around something on the dock, are a big help. As long as you can throw a line and snag one cleat, you're tied up well enough to stop, hop over, run a second line, and finish the rest under full control with the lines. I'll settle for "not elegant" anytime. That only caught me short once, up in British Columbia. Apparently no one USES CLEATS on the docks up that way, they build a slotted rail out of 2x4's a the dock edge instead, leaving nothing to throw a line around! Never did find out why...
