20221208 – Finally the marina had a slip available for us. But we had to get in stern first, an issue with the new wind vane mounted on the stern, which I had not to crunch on the dock. Also, the neighboring boat was a big power boat, and the strong winds would be setting us right down on that boat and off of our dock. So I spent a fair bit of time stressing about docking the boat under these conditions. I did not sleep much the night prior and got up at midnight to download new weather forecasts.

The new weather confirmed that the wind should have died off by around 0800 or 0900 but those forecasts are guesses and not to be relied upon as gospel.

When we got up at a decent hour all was still. We went ahead and cast off the mooring around 0700, which was very easy in the stillness, and motored into the docks. The wind had turned around and was blowing lightly in the opposite direction, all good for us. Also, one of the dock hands saw us and came to help take a line, very helpful when we were shorthanded.

I got us turned around stern-to in front of the slip and backed us in, just a bit cocked as I was still thinking in terms of the wind blowing the bow. But Jimena fended us off the corner and in the end we got into the slip with minimum drama and no damage or collision with anyone or anything.

We plugged in shore power, took showers and did chores. We had beers and guacamole and chips in La Brisa, the windy restaurant ten at 1700 we took delivery of the rental car for our trip to San Diego on the morrow. Jimena fixed supper aboard then we hit the rack relatively early for an early departure.

We had decided to drive up to San Diego to pick up some parts we don’t want to wait for, and to take care of some other chores like dental appointments and veterinary appointments for vaccination boosters.