Anniversary motor (19 great years) to South Western YC - 2011

Our anniversary motor (19 great years) to South Western Yacht Club (SWYC) was just fine. 

We had a beautiful July night on the bay with little boat traffic so no big motor sport fishing or other wakes to deal with.

June 2011 - Currently At Marina Cortez Harbor Island, San Diego, CA

 On the way a car ship was trying to chase us down but we out ran it 😉

 When we got to SWYC Debbie was at the helm and at the SWYC there were two boats at the two guest slips. One had a motor yacht and one had a sail boat (Erikson) and they were at the beginning of each dock. We talked about it and decided that for when we leave it would be best to be heading back out from the SWYC into the Shelter Island Basin instead of pointing into the SWYC. This mean we would need to motor in and turn around in their small basin and then dock. We chose the dock with the sail boat on it for tying up.

 I was a little nervous as we have not practiced this turning around much in such a small place. We or I have when screwing up leaving our slip and it is a bunch of back and forth maneuvers that are not pretty.

With all of SWYC watching (I imagined) and then having to parade up to the club for dinner I was let’s say reluctant. It’s that ego of mine that sometimes bits.

 Debbie did a great job of handling it all. It was just one smooth motion and we were on the dock looking real salty.
 The wind was pushing us to the north and that is one reason we chose the dock with the sail boat as the wind would push us into the dock. Of course the wind could have pushed us beyond the dock if we did not nail it right off and then we would be in a small fairway with little room to maneuver.

 There was opportunity for mishaps. If Debbie had not taken a wide turn in the basin we would have not made the dock or broached into the small fairway by the guest dock. She also could of hit the dock coming in with our stern while turning. This would have sent us directly into the slips in front of us. There were other opportunities for trouble but let’s just say we are getting good.

We did feel we have enough knowledge of our boat to handle most docking situations now. We would not have tried this if we thought we could not handle it, after all we were only going for dinner.

 This was another great docking experience which we gained more boat knowledge of our Islander Freeport and our new motor and new three blade prop.

 After we tied up one of the people on the Erikson came over and was curious about our boat. He liked it so much we invited him onboard for a look see. He was amazed at how much room we have. He said are you sure this is a 36’ boat like we do not know how long it is :). Any way he was quite impressed and then that it was built in 1978 he was amazed at the forward thinking.

 At SWYC they have so many trophies we just took pictures of a few. 

Nice place and of all the yacht clubs we like SWYC the best.
 While at dinner we bumped into Lee who works at Downwind Marine. He came by and we talked, a nice guy and for some reason looked different in the SWYC setting :😏

A  Freeport with the Kato Davits - SWYC

Kato Davits but not a Freeport - SWYC

 After dinner we went and did a dock walk and I looked at any boat that had Kato Davits. Just looking for clues on what size dingy and how their lifting points, rail re-enforcement etc. There were quite a few Kato Davits at SWYC. We also got some shade screen ideas for the front windows, I liked Debbie’s design most of all.

 The motor back was just as beautiful as the one over and the boat performed just great.

 When leaving our slip (we are backed in now) we use a line tied to the dock for pulling the bow around as we are leaving so it does not go into the fairway as we want it to go out of the fairway. The wind wants to push it around into the fairway. It is not ideal because we see it as a safety problem. If you should get your wrist say tangled in the line this could be a big problem if the line snags on the boat etc. but for now it works. When we are bow in we like to use a boat hook for leaving and pulling the bow around and it we feel is a lot safe as you can just let go of the boat hook and you will not get caught up with it in some freak accident.

 There was a small incident when we left our dock. Hinze was yelling that we had our power cord hooked up! We thought he was joking as he jokes around with us a lot. Actually the power chord was un-plugged from the boat and we always turn the switch off first at the dock box and then un-plug the chord from the boat. That is out routine. Only this time I forgot to take the plastic clip holding the chord on the dingy davits off. It keeps the power chord from resting in the water. It would have just fallen off. Hinze I think was concerned the chord was alive and the end was going into the water. Not so, but it all worked out.

 We backed into the slip once more without any problems when we came back, ya!