October 4, 2017
Marinas are strange organisms. Every one is unique in certain ways while, at the same time, exactly like the last one you visited. That’s speaking from the vast experience of both marinas I’ve been in.
No doubt, the late night laundry option and endless supply of hot shower water are two decadent guilty pleasures we are very keen on. However, there are also a wide range of characters every marina seems to have in play.
They range from very pleasant passerby conversations… like the guy walking his golden retriever who handed us a business card and declared, “I’m an engineer. I know how things are built. And you, my friends, have a brick shithouse that’ll go anywhere!”…
… to the sheer entertainment and sometimes painful witnessing of humans interacting with each other – for example, while having pizza in the cockpit with my parents as an expensive, production line 40 foot Bennetau comes around the corner trying to get into its slip, bow thrusters whining away, husband at the wheel and wife at the bow holding a dock line, both wearing what looks to be a very expensive set of headset radios (meant to reduce the ineffective yelling that often occurs between the cockpit and bow during a docking or anchoring maneuver), only to hear the husband scream at the top of his lungs from the cockpit to his wife standing at the bow, “Turn on your fucking headset!”
Always an adventure… rarely a dull moment.
But the marina served its purpose and my folks were able to come aboard to visit our new home. We even managed (by we I really mean Kris) to navigate out of the marina, get my parents out for their first sail ever to visit St. Thomas Lighthouse and sail beneath the Chesapeake Bay Bridge, and return unscathed to tie up again at the clearly posted No Docking inner wall of the marina.
Three things were abundantly reinforced during my parent’s visit:
- Whenever possible, let Kris do the close quarters maneuvering.
- I couldn’t ask for two parents who are more supportive, in all aspects of every seemingly crazy endeavor we undertake.
- Never ride in a rental car my Dad is driving!
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