Moving day. What? Yes we’re moving… to the dock, slip A12 to be exact. Our mooring month was up today, we timed our arrival on the dock to coincide with that. First stop was the gas dock to get the bottom cleaned. Five months on the ball in this grungy water had left Light Reach with quite a beard. We had an appointment with Dave the Diver at 9:00 am. We were up early to make a run into shore before dropping the lines to the mooring. Once back at the boat we emptied the dingy of her contents and lifted the motor onto its mount on the stern rail. We made final prep to leave the ball and with Scott on the helm I dropped the lines to the ball. I hailed the marina on the VHF and within 5 minutes we were docked at the gas dock. The divers arrived shortly after and armed with a scraper and a new zinc he jumped into the water to do the nasty job of cleaning the bottom and changing out our sacrificial aka the zinc. It was a surprisingly quick job to get the bottom cleaned. The diver was concerned since it had been 5 months that it would be a real effort to get the growth off. The expensive bottom paint we had applied last fall did its job repelling the nasties in the river water.
Once the job was done and the diver paid we made our way up the fairway toward our slip. Of course just as we approached another boat started backing out without looking. Grrrr Scott managed to avoid him but it did change our approach path making the turn a little sharper than we would have liked. The marina staff were there to help us get tied up and after more than a year we were once again parked at a dock. It took the rest of the day to get the boat settled. We now have the luxury of electricity, hot water on demand and as much fresh water as we would like to rinse the decks and fill the tanks. Ooh la la the high life!
Picture is of Light Reach in her new slip, first time at a dock in 2018.