First "Unsupervised" Outing
Other than a few days training this winter, we haven't had the combination of opportunity and confidence to take Aurora away from the dock on our own, without the supervision of an experienced captain. After spending most of the winter at our mountain residence, we're back in the city for various appointments and our 3 week coastal navigation course, which begins next week.
The past many days have been spectacularly sunny, though quite cold, and we've been making daily visits to Aurora. We had to put all our various personal items and provisions back on board after she'd been in the Vancouver boat show in early February, so each trip out we hauled bags and boxes of kitchen and bathroom supplies, cleaning supplies, blankets, etc. The last two trips were made with our canoe: we have wheels for our 17' kevlar prospector canoe, which we walk 10 minutes down to the closest public dock, then paddle about 20 minutes directly to Aurora's back steps. Easy peasy! Despite the cold air temperature, the enclosed rear salon and flybridge get greenhouse warm, making for some really nice afternoon lounging. But as soon as the sun dips down, brrrr, things cool off fasssst.
The last couple visits we also practiced launching the tender, having learned a thing or two after our first attempt in early December! The tender rests on cradles on a hydraulically operated teak "beach" platform, which raises and lowers the entire platform in and out of the water. It seems like it should be fairly straight forward, which it is, once you've figured out a few minor, but crucial, steps that if not done can have you tipping the boat sideways off the cradle into the water. I was going to take some video of A in the tender, lifting out of the water, it's like something out of Star Trek, but I didn't have my phone handy. Next time...
We spend this morning and early afternoon dealing with various appointments and errands, and planned to make another stop at the boat, this time with the car as we had some propane tanks and heavier items with us (the propane tank was to replace the one that had been stolen in early November). With the days being so much longer now, we figured we'd have time for a quick outing. It's high time we start practicing docking procedures on our own, now that we know the basics of preparing and handling the dock lines and manoeuvring the vessel.
On our drive out to the boat, we stopped by our friend I's house, which we drive right by to get to the marina. (He also has direct line of sight to the boat from his house!) He was home and was able to join us, so the three of us set out. After getting the boat and lines prepped, with me at the helm and the guys handling the lines, we pulled out and headed up the arm to our friend J's place. We found J sitting on a mossy bluff outside his cabin in the sunshine, and A manoeuvred us to within a few meters of the bluff where we hovered for a good 20 minutes having a chat. J took quite a few photos of us (the ones posted here).
As the sun set we motored back to the marina. Making sure we had fenders and dock lines ready to go, A piloted us in and back to the dock. The water was smooth as glass, though there was quite an outgoing current pulling the boat away from the dock. It took a few tries, but we got her tied up safely with no drama, cool heads and the key to easy docking - slow, very slow, speeds. Idle forward and idle reverse only, nothing more.
Afterwards we all commented how we felt a bit like we were unsupervised teenagers, taking out the parents car behind their backs!!
The past many days have been spectacularly sunny, though quite cold, and we've been making daily visits to Aurora. We had to put all our various personal items and provisions back on board after she'd been in the Vancouver boat show in early February, so each trip out we hauled bags and boxes of kitchen and bathroom supplies, cleaning supplies, blankets, etc. The last two trips were made with our canoe: we have wheels for our 17' kevlar prospector canoe, which we walk 10 minutes down to the closest public dock, then paddle about 20 minutes directly to Aurora's back steps. Easy peasy! Despite the cold air temperature, the enclosed rear salon and flybridge get greenhouse warm, making for some really nice afternoon lounging. But as soon as the sun dips down, brrrr, things cool off fasssst.
The last couple visits we also practiced launching the tender, having learned a thing or two after our first attempt in early December! The tender rests on cradles on a hydraulically operated teak "beach" platform, which raises and lowers the entire platform in and out of the water. It seems like it should be fairly straight forward, which it is, once you've figured out a few minor, but crucial, steps that if not done can have you tipping the boat sideways off the cradle into the water. I was going to take some video of A in the tender, lifting out of the water, it's like something out of Star Trek, but I didn't have my phone handy. Next time...
We spend this morning and early afternoon dealing with various appointments and errands, and planned to make another stop at the boat, this time with the car as we had some propane tanks and heavier items with us (the propane tank was to replace the one that had been stolen in early November). With the days being so much longer now, we figured we'd have time for a quick outing. It's high time we start practicing docking procedures on our own, now that we know the basics of preparing and handling the dock lines and manoeuvring the vessel.
On our drive out to the boat, we stopped by our friend I's house, which we drive right by to get to the marina. (He also has direct line of sight to the boat from his house!) He was home and was able to join us, so the three of us set out. After getting the boat and lines prepped, with me at the helm and the guys handling the lines, we pulled out and headed up the arm to our friend J's place. We found J sitting on a mossy bluff outside his cabin in the sunshine, and A manoeuvred us to within a few meters of the bluff where we hovered for a good 20 minutes having a chat. J took quite a few photos of us (the ones posted here).
photos taken by our friend J from his cabin, 20 min drive (at 5 kts) north of the marina
As the sun set we motored back to the marina. Making sure we had fenders and dock lines ready to go, A piloted us in and back to the dock. The water was smooth as glass, though there was quite an outgoing current pulling the boat away from the dock. It took a few tries, but we got her tied up safely with no drama, cool heads and the key to easy docking - slow, very slow, speeds. Idle forward and idle reverse only, nothing more.
Afterwards we all commented how we felt a bit like we were unsupervised teenagers, taking out the parents car behind their backs!!
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