Stress for less
Heerenxvii
Mon 12 Jul 2010 17:10
While we were extremely happy that we made it back to Slovenia without being
intercepted, shot at, entered, towed etc, shocked we were about the issues we
found about the boat on this trip.
Obviously I, A, do things wrong fairly constant, like rolling up the jib. Just
in front of the marina the spinnaker line apparently got entangled in the
roller system for the jib. luckily I am doing most of the winching manually to
prevent ripping a sail with the o so powerful electrical winch (5Kw/6Pk for the
experts). So, I felt resistance, I looked and was scared it was already broken,
I had to act quickly. But as I did not spot the right color of the line, I
released the wrong line, now the jib lowered about 2 meters. This was the point
of marina entry where it was pretty busy, and we did a 180 degree turn, started
the engine quickly and pointed in the wind. The job was making an enormeous
noise from flapping in the wind. But after about 10 minutes we got the jammed
situation under control, no damage.
We then motored into the marina. Here, in calm waters, we could switch on the
BOW and STERN thrusters, underwater propellors that allow the boat to move
sideways. The STERN thruster in the back of the boat was not working. After 20
minutes resetting I decided that I SHOULD have read the F... manual (RTFM). Too
late, up to the shore to do a mediterranean mooring, this would be our second
mooring in reverse.Two lines need to be picked up from the shore and brought
forward on the boat, funny enough they pull the boat from the shore.
Simultaneously, before or after (no idea yet as again I have not read the
manual :() , two lines from the back of the boat need to be thrown over a
'bolder' and pulled so that the boat is pulled to the shore. This is an ideal
activity with 5 people on board. With 2 it is possible, but sacrifices are
luring...
Jut before I turned the boat to go in reverse, G noticed the dinghy was still
behind the boat, not an ideal scenario when going in reverse to shore. Quickly
she untied the 7 knots I put in the blue line pulling the dinghy back from
Croatia. Thereafter she untied 5 knots from the white line (always have a
backup plan when towing :). This was the point where G changed frequency,
pitch, volume, attack and vocabulary when communicating back to me
O^&#$#O$^O*(#&)(#$ and more. But, she did move the dinghy to the front of the
boat.
Now it was time for the mediterranean mooring event. I calmly reversed in
between two boats, to number 6 where we came from the day before. But the
Marina crew on the shore were shouting that I should take 9. Obviously I was
not going to listen, and tried to go in number 6. But without excercise, too
much sidewind, 1 thruster working, and a wrong approach this failed. The
shouting increased from the shore, and the marina crew guy was pointing at his
marifoon/VHF to indicate we should change to that communication method. Only
problem was that I had forgotten to connect the marifoon outside....
G decided it was better to go into number 9. So far so good, without hitting
the 2 neighboring boats we went into the slot, but then first the equipment
alarmed me that the batteries where to low to use the only remaining BOW
thruster, and then another alarm indicated the batteries where getting to hot.
Perfect timing!!!!
But with just 1 meter from shore and safely between 2 other boats, my stress
level suddenly reduced, and I was smiling at the crew guy, as he helped with
the lines.
Things were looking great, the boat safe, a cold beer in my hand and no stress,
and then the marina crew guy insisted on something I could not understand from
his heavy accent. The boat what? Still no stress. The boat blah, the boat BLA?,
the boat PAY? I really could not get stressed from me not understanding him.
And then it dawned on me, he was asking for THE OFFICIAL BOAT PAPERS!!!!
AAAARRRRGGGGHHHHH