Sail Away: 04 Leaving Bock 2009-09-24

We're as ready as we can be....we think. As I write, it's 5:55 p.m.; I'm in the middle of preparations for a lovely dinner of boneless spareribs prepared stew-style with potatoes, onions, garlic Brussels sprouts, wine, apples, blackening spices thrown in for good measure; all in a wonderfully thick gravy.
We left Bock Marine about 1:45 p.m., motoring slowly with the intent of using this afternoon as a training ground. It started out quite pleasantly...admiring the waterfront homes, the lovely boats passing us....going where we have been...but it was an extremely short-lived pleasure. Jim explained how to maneuver a boat...forward, back, left, right (port, starboard). I had my usual little meltdown because I didn't have a clue in hell what I was doing. In the beginning, he might as well have been speaking Chinese, for all I understood; however, it suddenly got through my fear barrier and I thought I got it. It's not difficult, actually quite similar to driving a car. So Jim left me with instructions to practice forward and reverse, port, starboard, while he went forward to the bow to prepare the anchor. When he left me at the helm, the depth indicator reflected about 7.5 ft. Now I knew from Jim's instructions that our keel is 5' 2”, so....going by my instructions from the Captain, it was very important that while I practiced, I also keep my eye on the depth gauge. Well... 7.5 ft suddenly went to 7.4, 7.3, 7.2...down, down, down in numbers. When it reached 6 ft., I called out to him in a panic because the numbers were going down so fast. He quickly came to the helm, but by then, the depth had dropped to 5'.2”.....we were grounded. Poor Jim has no alternative but to call Tow Boat (thank heavens we have insurance; the bill was $800!)

Jim calling Tow Boat

After this was sorted out, we anchored for the day and drowned our frustrations in good food with wine. It definitely helped; but the day wasn't over yet. As we sat below in the salon talking, suddenly a huge puff of smoke appeared from one of the sockets in the galley. Disappointed, we knew we would have to go back to Bock.

While further repairs were being done, we took the opportunity to better know some of the people staying at Bock Marine. We enjoyed the get-togethers through potlucks and personal entertaining on our boat and the boats of others and evenings out at restaurants. It was an enjoyable time.