berthing....

Forgot to mention that while we were down on the boat on Sunday, the Marina Manager popped his head over the guard wires to ask if we wanted to relocate to the berth next door.... The previous owner having now departed for pastures new.... Initially I declined, given that it is Starboard side too, and with a RH prop, we kick to port in astern.... However, after mulling it over for 20mins or so, I changed my mind.... firstly the berth is 'open' rather than 'closed', has significantly more space, being the last finger before the main pontoon proper, so only has a transom to negotiate rather than a complete hull, and finally, with prevailing wind direction, we are blown on, rather than off.... So, last task Sunday evening was to move boat onto new berth..... now, bearing in mind that we haven't exacwtly had an active sailing winter, and that my maneouvering skills are somewhat rusty, I was wary.... add to this, the 20kt wind blowing in exactly the opposite direction to prevailing, eg straight off the berth and towards the stern of the next boat, I was slightly more nervous.... We backed off our current berth, and I took the ultra cautious route of motoring right out of the aisle, into the dock proper and then taking my time to motor back in slowly.... We approached, while I waited for SWMBO to jump onto the pontoon..... I waited and I waited.... eventually I said, OK, go on then.... at which point the reply was, no bloody way... its 6 feet away..... I had gone in too slowly, and we had been blown off.... I didn't want to go in too hard and then need to use to much reverse as the kick to port can be quite large....... So into reverse we went..... the stern swung, and we got frighteningly close to the Benny 393 behind.... abit of shuffling saw us clear, and I then had to execute a 3 point turn in the aisle, which was happily successful..... we then backed right out, and had another go..... In a bit hotter this time, and then a belt of reverse... SWMBO made it onto the pontoon, and made off the stern to stop it swinging into the boat behind.... it was however, way too long, and we swung out quite a way.... she made the bow line off, and I went ashore and pumped the stern back into its rightfull place.... Going to be interesting this one over the coming weeks.... easier with the wind blowing us on, but may have to explore the use of a line from the mid ships cleat...... perhaps a bit of practice on the waiting pontoon outside the lock.....