To all my blue water sailor friends out there, especially Norman Marshall, Jack Mosley and Hugo Duarte, Derek Knights, Linda Beatty and anyone else who has spend some time chasing the wind, especially those who have sat dockside at the Pussers Pub in Soapers Hole Tortola, British Virgin Islands, this story is for you. About 3:00 this afternoon Liz and I were having lunch at this very pleasant spot, sitting out on the dock side dining terrace we had a great view of the marina area. As we were eating a very large catamaran came in under power and just sort of hung off the dock a couple of minutes. The mate was busy getting fenders out and ready and there was no sign of the captain at the helm under the Bimini. Suddenly this massive cat which was a Voyager 60 and full 25 feet abeam and maybe more began to rotate so that it was stern facing the dock, the captain popped up out of the cockpit while the mate was still running around the foredeck and began to back into the very narrow space between two piers. I was watching intently thinking where the hell is he going to put that think in this tight area? He was working the throttles and the helm with his back to them and was backing in at more than just steering speed, just standing there looking at the dock and working behind his back. This was really getting interesting and I was not the only one who stood and walked over to the rail to see where the hell this monster cat was going. At the last minute he put her hard over and made what could only be called a tight radius 90 degree and put her right into a dock side slip not much wider than the boat. By this time the dock handlers were stinging to, to take the bow and stern lines but holy shit was that guy sure of his skills and surely he had what sailors would call local knowledge. I felt like I was watching that scene in Captain Ron when they arrived in The Wanderer on St. Haag. I dont know if this skilled waterman stepped off and said I think Ill go with a margarita like Captain Ron did, but he sure made it look just as easy as that wacky one eyed sailor did.
Posted on: Mon, 24 Mar 2014 02:20:54 +0000
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