32miles

Day 1 We had a nice 32 mile easy run from our home port of Hudgins Horn Harbor Marina to Hampton Docks.
Well, the cruise was easy but not the docking. Suz and I have been in all sorts of tight quarters docking and un-docking. The important thing is to not let anyone watching see you sweat. Keep those jitters inside. We had not been to these docks before in Hampton. And, they are the kind of docks I least like. Very short finger pier and nothing between you and the boat occupying the other half of this space. In other words YOU CAN HIT THE BOAT NEXT TO YOU. And of course the wind always picks up when docking. That is a requirement that Poseidon works out with Aeolus, God of the winds.

It goes like this Poseidon sends a text to Aeolus and says “ Liquid Therapy is about to dock and I think he knows what he’d doing. Could you make him sweat a bit, Not an insurance claim - but just make him sweat some”. Aeolus texts back to Poseidon “ Wait there’s those 3 dots indicating he’d typing back.. Then the 3 dots like the reply text is being erased, and Poseidon is getting upset. Then the text comes through from Aeolus “ Hey Poseidon, I see where Liquid Therapy intends to dock. There’s no current so I’ll whip up some wind to push him sideways into that boat next to him in the slip.” Aeolus continues “ Oh how easy for me ,, the slip has a short finger pier, They will never get in. Nothing to grab on. Aeolus says “Poseidon, I’ll send you a video of them attempting to dock. Oh, I’m sure I can get onlookers on the dock too. This is fun” OK, Liquid Therapy tried to dock stern in twice without an insurance claim. I’m sure Aeolus was videoing too. We gave up on that very tight slip and moved down two and went bow in. With assistance from the U.K. boat next to us that we could not possibly hit, the DockMaster that could not get past the end of the short finger pier and the Canadian boat on the side we could hit, we got docked -again with no insurance claim. Thank you to the U. N. Boaters that prevented an international incident.
After getting secured I had a beer.
We walked about 1/2 a mile to see our friends with the band www.thenglishchannel.com at the Vanguard Distillery play and have a nice meal. The English Channel band plays only 60-70s English cover tunes and they play them like the albums. Great music. Nice meal and distillery samples and an uneventful walk back to the boat in the dark. After all we were walking, alone, at 11:30PM , in Hampton, VA. What could possibly go wrong? We walked as fast back to the boat as anyone our age can go. And then fast asleep.
Today’s picture is The English Channel on stage at the Vanguard Distillery, Hampton, VA