Single IO docking Stern to in high winds

Watch Hill mosquitos are dawn & dusk for about an hour each. I stay off the land docks just go for A-B or C-D, B dock or C dock if available are also ok. Stay off E,A land & D land if possible. Food truck is great! The staff there are fantastic also! That path to Davis Park is a bug zone at night only use it during the day.
If you want to go town to town use the water taxis because the bugs love the dunes!

Well after all of that patting myself on the back for getting in that nightmare slip situation, yesterday was NOT one of those good boating days. Went out and Anchored with family over at fire island. Spent the day at the beach, fun in the water. All good times. Went to pull the anchor up with the windlass, and the "Up" function wasnt responding. My bow Up footswitch has always been iffy, but the helm control never failed me, but this day it did. So i had to pull the anchor by hand and manually feed it into my windlass and down into my anchor locker.

After much cursing and frustration, we were underway back to our slip. It was forecast to be light variable winds all day, but surprisingly by the time we got back to our marina, the winds were a bit heavier than expected. Went to pull into my slip as usual, and a big gust caught my bow and before i even had a second to think about it, we were sideways scraping my neighbors outboard prop. Took me another 2x tries before i finally got the boat in the slip, and of course everyone was on the dock watching. He was very very kind and basically just said "Hey thats boating, no one got hurt and thats all that matters!", but of course now i have a new bright shiny deep scratch in my gelcoat.

Needless to say, my pride is gone. We all have those days where everything you thought was going to go south, goes totally fine, and then those days where its just a routine day, but everything goes south fast.

Raise your hand if you’ve had a small mishap in a tight and/or windy slip.

I have

this is why you go slow. It limits the damage.

If the worst that happened is a few hull marks you’ll be fine. Those repairs are not that costly and it could’ve been much worse.

Man, sorry to hear it. I know it's demoralizing but your (awesome) neighbor had it right, we've all been there.

Like the time I pulled out of my slip with 14 people aboard, 60% of which are smart-asses, and forgot my power cord was still attached. Yeah, I might have heard about that for a while.

copb8tx said:

Man, sorry to hear it. I know it's demoralizing but your (awesome) neighbor had it right, we've all been there.

Like the time I pulled out of my slip with 14 people aboard, 60% of which are smart-asses, and forgot my power cord was still attached. Yeah, I might have heard about that for a while.

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Ouch. I'm sure the dock owner didnt love that haha any damage? Havent been able to get back on the boat since weds last week, but for sure without a doubt any time you dock perfectly, no ones there, but any time you mess up, everyones inevitably standing on the dock

Sicktght311 said:

Ouch. I'm sure the dock owner didnt love that haha any damage? Havent been able to get back on the boat since weds last week, but for sure without a doubt any time you dock perfectly, no ones there, but any time you mess up, everyones inevitably standing on the dock

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Those power cords just pop out with no damage at all, other than to your ego. GFI trips as soon as the cord hits the water.

2 minute recovery with a lifetime memory.

copb8tx said:

Those power cords just pop out with no damage at all, other than to your ego. GFI trips as soon as the cord hits the water.

2 minute recovery with a lifetime memory.

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Must have a different one than i do. Ours have threaded collars, so they lock on both ends. If i tried to pull away from the dock with mine still attached, it would end up being a very expensive damaging impromptu dock line lol