A Crowning Moment

      Enough is enough.  It's time to get out of dodge, or in this case, West Palm Beach, Florida.  By this time on Sunday, Sharon and I had enough of marina life.  But there was one problem.  The weather in central Florida is still being influenced by Hurricane Sandy, and the cold front that kept Sandy out of Florida.  Since late Saturday, the winds have been pounding Big Run on the port beam with 20-25 MPH winds sustained.  We had to secure Big Run in the slip with two more lines, for a total of 12 lines.  With the winds on the port beam, it was going to be difficult to back Big Run out of the slip.  If we were to attempt to release from the dock in a haphazard fashion, the winds would have slammed Big Run into the pilings on the starboard side.  Sunday was spent preparing to leave the marina on Monday morning when we anticipated light winds early in the morning just before sunrise.  Another challenge caused by Sandy was the extreme high tides.  Sunday morning the water was over the docks.  Monday morning's high tide was predicted for 9 a.m.  Early Sunday afternoon, during low tide, we managed to get off the boat.  Sharon went to the office to pay the bill while I disconnected the utilities - electric, water and cable.  We also had to reconfigure all the dock lines.  The bow lines, which had been set up for the strong northerly winds on Friday, were changed over to single lines.  The port bow had been secured with triple lines, and the starboard bow was double for the storm.  Once converted, all the lines were set up for quick release from on the boat for Monday morning as we would not be able to get off of the boat due to high tide.  By 3 p.m. all of the preparations were made for Monday morning.

     We were that anxious to get out of the marina, we didn't need an alarm clock Monday morning and were up by 6:30 a.m.  We discussed our plan and set the wheels in motion at 7:00, just barely enough light to see the channel out of the marina back onto the ICW.  Our plan was to remove all dock lines on the starboard side of the boat.  Then, slowly work the boat back an extra 10 feet by pulling on the port stern line and then letting out some slack on the port bow line.  Once we had the boat moved back as far as possible, we had to release the one all important line, the port midship line which keep us tight to the port side pilings.  Once the midship line was release, we had to work quickly.  On cue, I released the bow line, and simultaneously Sharon released the port midship line while maintaining tension on the port stern line.  I quickly went to the pilothouse to put the transmission in reverse.  As designed, the lines released, and Big Run very gracefully backed out of the slip without leaning on or rubbing a piling while the winds were blowing at 20 MPH on the port beam.  As I continued to back Big Run away from the marina, Sharon was responsible to retrieve the dock lines that had released from their dock cleats and pilings and fell into the water.  Although the lines were still attached to the boat, Sharon had to accomplish her mission quickly to keep the lines from fouling the prop.  By 7:10 a.m. we had Big Run turned around and heading out the channel towards the ICW.  Thanks to some creative docking line design we looked like we knew what we were doing.  Too bad nobody was watching.  Definitely a crowning moment.