The Journey Of 1,000 Miles Begins With A Single Step!

SHIP'S LOG:

Or in this case getting off the dock and onto my mooring 100 yards away. Hey, it's a big step because it is the first one and now I have to wait out the weather. The next couple of days will be nasty and out here on the mooring, I will be able to "safely" learn about living on a boat full-time.

I went out and did the shopping today and got the food stuffs for the next couple of weeks. Even doing the shopping at BJ'S Wholesale club was a bit of a shock. I kept it simple, no prime rib or chicken Kiev. Moving onto the boat is akin to moving into your first apartment. You really have to get everything - salt & pepper, sugar, the odd pot , dish washing liquid, soap, shampoo, etc., etc., etc. Once you have the "staples, you buy the "luxury items" like FOOD.

And as with your first very small, tiny, have-to-go-outside-to-change-your-mind apartment, you are then faced with where are you going to put it all. Thankfully, I didn't buy that much - couldn't afford to - but I was still faced with the problem of storage. The interior of the boat was still littered with boxes and bags of important "stuff" all needing a place to go an d not all that many place to go. It was a seller's market so to speak. So out on the mooring I got to work storing all the stuff - food and otherwise - all over the boat, keeping a careful record of where everything went so that when I need it, I can find it. The chances of that are slim and none and slim just left town. But at least I can move around the interior easier than before. Truth be told, it is not all done, but with the storm acomin' I'll have plenty of time to finish it off and correct any mistakes.

Getting off the dock where I was tied up for three days was an interesting experience. The boat was tied to the dock with two bow line and two stern lines, basically keeping it from moving, and a spring line which kept the boat from surging forward into the dock. Getting ABISHAG away from the dock by myself in a 20 knot wind was a real problem. How do you untie the lines from the dock without the boat blowing away or into some pilings and steer the boat and control the throttle at the same time. God arranged for one of the Diesel Brothers to show up at the Club and he gave me a fascinating lesson in the Art of Spring Line Management.It is rather complicated to explain and I am not even sure I understand the whole process completely myself, but with his instructions and demonstrations, I backed ABISHAG away from the dock with out killing him or me or sinking my boat or someone else's. All in all, a successful maneuver though I am loathed to try it again anytime soon . . . . but you just know that it is going to happen. I kept playing it over in my head while I was storing stuff, trying to get it to stay. It probably will and that is also why I can't recall where half the stuff got stored.

MASTER'S PERSONAL LOG:

It is better on the mooring. ABISHAG doesn't fight the wind and the waves and she rides wonderfully smooth. She also makes a lot less noise, less creaking and groaning. I guess she doesn't like being at the dock all that much. I still have my car. I tell myself that it is just for those last minute trips I have to make to buy the odds and ends I keep forgetting but it is really a tie to the land. I guess that sounds rather dramatic but it's a real safety valve. I can get in and drive to the store, the movies, to get a meal, and do all the familiar things that we all take for granted. Having to be confined on the boat will take a little, perhaps a lot of getting use to, and even though I am on the mooring now and getting to the car will entail lowering the dinghy, getting in, rowing to the beach, securing the dinghy and walking to the car, I can do it. When the car is gone, the last tie gets severed. Yeah, that sounds overly dramatic too. The boat becomes your world.