As we cast off the dock lines and left Lippincott Marina behind my pulse quickened as the current pushed us back and I turned Tropical Horizons II around with her stern backing into the marina and her bow pointing into the narrow channel that would lead us out into the Chesapeake Bay. Keeping calm and focused is key to a successful departure and arrival in any port and this was no exception. As I was making the turn, people were concerned about our stern being pushed into the piles at the entrance to the Marina. I remained calm and using the stern thruster in combination with the engines and rudder I managed to get on our way without touching a piling or running aground out of the narrow channel.
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Our friends Capt. Steve and Capt. Diane and myself, all happy to get off the dock and underway.
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We were on our way. The next stop would be St. Michael's only 11 or so nautical miles away. This would be a short trip but would be a good test for the machinery and systems aboard Tropical Horizons II. We would run the generator during our travels simply to keep the air-conditioners running in the Chesapeake heat of the summer.
Tropical Horizons ran well and we were happy to burn off some fuel in order to lower the level in the tank and finally overcome the fuel leak issue that had been a challenge from the first day we launched her. St. Michael's is a beautiful small town on the bay and is home to the Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum. We would have docked here but they did not have enough shore power to meet the power demands of Tropical Horizons II. We need to connect to 50A 240 VAC power to be able to feed the various battery chargers that charge the various battery banks that keep the various systems aboard running.
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Approaching St. Michaels
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| The Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum. |
As we approached St. Michael's we hailed the Harbor Inn Marina and Spa for our slip assignment. To my surprise and trepidation they had us on a long dock with a tight approach between two sailboats. To make things more challenging one sailboat was kicking out of the dock at about a 30 degree angle. Key to this was communications with my deck crew, who would communicate with the dock staff and a very slow approach. When you enter a marina with any vessel you always have an audience, in this case, aboard a 60 ft. 1958 classic yacht it feels like the entire world is watching and judging my docking skills.
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| Safely tied up! |
We came into the marina and approached the dock at almost dead slow, I was really happy to see that I could maintain control of Tropical Horizons II at speeds below 1 kt (nautical mile per hour). This is very slow and there is no way that our Sea Ray would have behaved so well at these speeds. I pointed her bow aiming at the dock and keeping us at a 30 degree approach. Karen was not so comfortable with this as it was not how we usually came in with the Sea Ray. I assured her that we would be fine at this approach. At this point our bow thruster was still week because of some battery issues that had been the result of improper winter storage from the yard that had supposedly winterized the systems. This problem would come to a head later during our voyage. Once we were close enough to the dock and Karen managed to toss a bow line to the dock hands, I split the engines (port in forward gear and starboard in reverse) turned the wheel hard to starboard and the stern of Tropical Horizons II simply slid over. I used the thrusters only at the end to help snug the boat up to the dock helping the dock hands with their job tying us up. With all lines secured, I shut down the engines and started my arrival chores. My blood pressure dropped and the first docking was out of the way.
Once you arrive in port and are tied up securely the next thing you do after you shut down the engines and systems such as radar, is you need to connect to shore power. In our case that consists of shutting off all AC breakers, shutting off the main AC breaker, plugging the power cable into the dock power (make sure power is off at the pedestal), shut down the generator, select the shore power on the main panel, turn on the breakers at pedestal, then turn on the main breaker, check the power voltage and polarity, then start turning on AC systems one at a time. With the shore power connected I tipped the dock staff and installed the boarding stairs. Finally I filled out the documentation and formally checked into the marina.
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Pool deck at the Harbor Inn Marina and Spa.
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Bar and social area at Harbor Inn Marina and Spa.
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Now that we were checked in, I could start to relax and continue with my arrival duties. Next on my list of arrival duties was to finish filling out my log book with arrival time, distance traveled and any notes about the marina and approach. Then I checked fuel levels and logged those making quick calculations of what our burn rate was. Finally I started planning the route that we would follow the next day. Captain Steve, hopped off the boat and went for a soak in the pool and I kicked back with a nice cold drink to relax and enjoy our surroundings. While all of this was going on, Karen was tidying up the deck, took Tank for a walk, and snapped pictures of our surroundings.
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Of course there are some much larger yachts visiting this port!
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| Tucked away for the evening. |
It was nice to get the first docking out of the way and to be able to sit back and relax on the aft deck of Tropical Horizons II. We brought out some food, had a great meal and as the day came to an end we retired to our cabins, I felt confident and at home aboard. That evening as we were nestled in our bunks I couldn't help but notice that it felt like Tropical Horizons II was listing over to her port side just a bit....what was that all about?
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More restaurants and marinas spread across the port.
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