The Marina Experience

This is the first of two trips to Mazatlan this season. After an exhausting overnight journey we are looking forward to the "marina experience", which for us, it is always a bittersweet. We look forward to having the boat tied up to a dock, not having to wait for favorable winds, current, or shore break to row to shore, not having to worry about dragging anchor while we are on shore, the easy access to food and laundry, and a shower...But we dread the difficult and stressful situation it can sometimes be to navigate a full keeled eleven ton vessel into a slip. It would be like trying to park your beat up SUV in a parking lot for compacts next to a BMW while the ground was moving faster than your engine can maneuver--oh, did I mention that everyone around stops to watch? True to our fears, getting into our slip at El Cid in Mazatlan was a harrowing experience. Wind and current seem to have every bit if not more control of our boat as our rudder and engine. In the best of conditions, dead calm, our boat does not have a tight turning radius, and we always have to be aware of our bow sprit which precedes our boat by six feet. Our slip was on a single finger near the end of a row with the current pushing us towards the other boat in the slip (of course), and the row ended with a high sea wall causing a forceful swirling current. Jim at the helm made a successful turn into the row, then eased into the tight space, avoiding our bowsprit hitting the boat tied up in the slip next to us. For half a second we breathed a sigh of relief as I jumped off the boat...but before I could tie us off on a cleat, the swift, swirling current was taking the boat away from the dock. The stern threatening to bump the boat next to us and the bow close to ramming the concrete pillar holding the dock in place. Seeing me struggle to pull the boat into the slip (unsuccessfully), a marina employee who was painting a fire box ran over to lend assistance. He grabbed hold of the gunnels and started pulling. Meanwhile Lily, picking up on the high tension of the situation, felt that her boat was in danger of being boarded an was viciously barking and snapping at the man who was trying to help. Seeing the futility of our position, the man said Jim would have to back up and try to come in again. (Did I mention that among its other weaknesses our doesn't back up very well. It will back up; you just never know what direction it will go. What can I say? We love her, but she was meant to weather through tough storms and heavy seas and come out unscathed, not maneuver into tight spaces in a marina...but I digress) So, with several forward and backward shifts managed to clear the boat next to us and the concrete pillar. At this point it is relevant to mention that we had forgotten to put down our newly installed solar panels, and, oh yeah, I forgot to jump back on the boat. So Jim was single handing as the current pushed him towards the row of boats behind us, and I watched from the helplessness of the docks as our solar panel was on a collision course with an anchor hanging from another boat. Being nothing he could do about it, in his mind, Jim had resolved that the anchor was going to tear off our solar panel. But to our great fortune, it was a CQR type anchor and the angle was just right for the anchor to swivel up and slide across the panel clearing it with no damage done. Second try into the slip was successful. Whew...now for that shower.