Sweet Antigua

After a rather uneventful journey from Grenada, the site of Antigua on the horizon was a welcome relief. There are two harbors, Falmouth and English harbor both provide an excellent anchorage and are close to services, I choose English Harbor because at the time this was where the only fuel dock lay. If you never visited Antigua you will quickly realize this is the capital of yachting in the Caribbean and formally the way station for the British fleet during Lord Nelson's time. I'll dedicate a blog to Antigua at a later date when I share my experiences on Antigua race week and the Antigua Charter boat show on my return to the Caribbean. For the moment, my story is filled with urgency to cross the Atlantic! I need to top off my water, fuel and food. Most importantly I need to find my crew and my two club sailors who will pay my expenses. But first an aside about Med mooring. America sailors are generally clueless about dropping an anchor and backing up to a quay and docking their boat. I have witnessed more than one calamity watching an inexperienced sailor crash into million dollar yachts, fouling anchor chains and generally pissing off everyone on the dock. So please practice where you won't do any damage. A couple of notes on how to achieve a smooth docking and impress your neighbors with your boat handling skills. Be prepared! First secure your sails before you start this maneuver. I can't tell you the number of times I've seen a crew member racing around the deck in a panic only to trip over the sails. Put fenders out on both sides of your vessel, especially where the boat is at its widest. Prepare your lines. You will be passing the loop end to the dock. Don't expect the person standing on the dock to be able to tie a knot for you. However, some quays only have heavy iron rings and no bollards, don't worry, you will have to get the person on the dock to pass the line through the ring and toss it back to you on the boat. It is a bit more complicated but I'll get to that in a moment. He or she could be a tourist walking off three bottles of wine in the fresh night air so don't expect much and don't yell! (Been there done that). With your dock lines coiled on the aft deck and the loop passed under the rails, tie a Monkey's paw (fist)to the loop. What you say? A Monkey's paw is a three inch round ball of line attached to a light throwing line. It gives it weight to toss the line. Now I've always taught my mates to coil the line in their left hand in a counter clockwise way making a loop of about eighteen inches making sure to give the line a quarter twist as you set it into their palm. Coil about thirty feet of line with the Monkey paw on the outside of the coil, then divide the coil in half the Monkey paw in your right hand, now you are ready. To throw the line mimic a golf swing. Turn your shoulders and follow through. The line will drop out of the bottom of the coil while the monkey paw reaches the dock. Now the mate is prepared but what about the Captain? First no yelling, it shows you don't have confidence and will only confuse the mate. If you have a remote anchor switch at the helm life will be so easy! You can control the vessel as it makes way to the stern, if not your mate will have to operate the deck switch. Hand signals are perfect for this situation. "Thumbs up. Thumbs down. A fist to lock the winch" Now moving parallel to the quay pick a spot where your dock lines will run straight off the corner of the stern to the bollard or rings. Drop the anchor. English harbor is about twenty feet deep so I let out about a two to one ratio roughly 35 yards from the quay. When you feel the anchor hit the bottom let out a another fifteen feet and stop. Turn the boat and start backing up. A note: most sailboats have props that will pull you to one direction either left or right, take the prop out of the equation. Once you begin moving backward feather the prop just to keep you moving. I find it is easier to steer in reverse if I turn my back to the helm. While backing up you will feel the bow pull a little. Use this to keep the boat on course. Signal the mate to drop a little more anchor chain. The weight of the chain will stabilize the bow. When you think you have sufficient rode out to reach the dock with out the rode rising out of the water and stopping you dead signal to your mate to lock the winch. You should be about ten feet from the quay. They can walk back pick up the tossing line and launch. The person on the dock can reel in the line and place it on the bollard. In the event you are dealing with rings they can pass the line back through the ring and toss the line back to the boat. At this point you should be eight to ten feet from the quay. If they are completely incompetent use a boat hook to reach the line. If the line falls helplessly into the water, calmly pull it out. Captain don't panic and don't use the prop! Now with the line tied off to the dock and the boat go back to the winch and tighten the chain. The boat will be perfectly aligned. Put out your passerail, jump off and kiss the ground. Now using two more lines make a cross left to right and right to left for your spring lines.
Make sure to thank your crew for the good work and to immediately forgive any transgressions, it will make life easier in the future.
Tomorrow more.....