Helping moments

[Amgine]

So I had to leave the marina yesterday.

I was walking down the dock as the owner of the Contest 44 was getting underway. They'd been in a hurry for a couple hours or more, trying to get everything ready and off the dock. And skipper was clearly in that "we're done, let's get the heck out of here" mode. Been there, done that, besides, it was clearly almost low tide and he had probably 4 miles to get to the Second Narrows and a few miles beyond that to get through the First Narrows and he sure didn't want to be fighting them against the race.

But he'd forgotten the stern line. So I pointed it out before it came completely taut, he backed down and I put it on his cute little line holder so he could grab it again when he got back. By this time he was drifting back into the bowsprit of the boat behind him, so I was pulling his quarter in to keep his shiny flagstaff away from the bobstay. And he was looking very annoyed with me, and slammed the engine into gear and roared from dock.

I dealt with another boat coming into the dock a mile a minute (shiny motorboat), talked with the young lady about cleaning her carpets (and putting them across the docks to dry,) and the guy with the very pretty wood sloop for sale (sure, I can splice some new docklines for him like mine.) Then I hid below for about fifteen minutes and decided I couldn't get much done on my own boat with so many people around. And the boat rolls more without the mast up in all the wakes; I'd get seasick at the dock.

So I went home, and it wasn't even noon.