Parking Tickets

Alice and Captain Phil

Over the weekend we had two good boat driving lessons.  Captain Joe wasn't available, so we went out with Captain Phil.  He's an interesting guy and a good teacher too. Many years experience as a commercial fisherman in Gloucester , and then a private boat captain on long term cruises and delivery trips up and down the east coast and further.  He routinely handles 60 and 75 foot boats.

He's also an accomplished artist to boot.

Like our previous lessons, we didn't touch the rudder wheel very much, if at all.  It was about controlling the boat with the twin props.  Unlike our previous times, we also didn't touch the throttles.  We did everything at idle speed.  He told us over and over:  fast errors have to be corrected fast, but slow ones give you time.

Slow is smooth, and smooth is fast.

Phil was interesting because he really took time to explain the physics of what was happening on the boat.  The first time out it was hard to make use of the concepts, I just didn't get it.  And then the second time, it mostly clicked into place.

Moving a boat with twin propellers in the stern means:

• The boat PIVOTS about 1/3 from the bow going forward, and 1/3 from stern going in reverse.
• The boat goes forward easier, because of the design of the bow. But the bow is the "dumb" part of the boat - all the steering is in the back (in a boat with no thrusters, like ours).  This really takes awhile to grasp because you can't help but thinking you're driving a car.  It's the exact opposite of a car.

When maneuvering into a dock or in close quarters to other boats,  you need to make constant tiny corrections.   You're always adjusting for

• wind
• current
• your own momentum!  

The last one is a biggie:  to get into a slip, you have to ease forward and reverse repeatedly, changing the direction of the boat in small degrees. What this means in reality is that by the time your boat is moving in the direction you want, its time to correct in the other direction.

Basically, you're doing 3 point turns like in a car, except steering from the back, and you have reverse the forward motion once its done what its supposed to for you.

Some funny Captain Phil moments:

• "You have to get scarily close to those boats to get in the dock.  Terrifying, really."
• "Can you stop it here? No.  It's a boat."
• "Why are you going forward when the dock is behind us?"
• "Ok, so now why are you looking forward, when you're going in reverse?"

Anyway, they big news is, after 25 tries, yes both Alice and I successfully learned how to back the boat into a docking slip.  Amazing! Of course, it was an empty slip on the outer edge of the marina, but it counts.  Eventually we hope to do it in our jam packed slip inside the D fairway.

After two hours of nerve-racking docking practice, we treated ourselves to a cruise in the harbor.  It doesn't look it in this picture, but wow was it crowded!  The sail boats were like wild birds everywhere. Alice had to contend with "following seas", which pushes the boat and makes it sort of hop!   

 We didn't get any pictures of the docking itself, because we were both white knuckled and fixated on not crashing (even the non driver).  BUT, when cruising out in the harbor I was able to go into the engine room and get a reading on the operating temperature of the port engine.