Saturday, October 18, 2014

Med Mooring and Projects

We had to move yesterday, into a new slip that uses something called a Med Mooring system. Basically, it is a system that is used a lot of places, namely the Mediterranean, and not so much in the states. The way it works is pretty cool, and once it is set up, the boat feels rock solid and locked in good. I can't help wondering what would happen if anything let go though, the system relies on constant tension to make it work right. Oh, and I only have one line from the bow right now instead of two. The general idea is that there is a mooring ball in front of the slip that is chained to the ocean floor. As you back in to the slip, you pass a line through the ring on top of the mooring ball, and let line out as you back in. Once you are in the slip, you tie the stern to a seawall, and then tension the front line until it drags the mooring almost under the water. Then you can side tie to the finger pier if you have one, or if not, walk the plank onto the seawall! We have a nice floating finger pier to use. Can't see walking the plank, hell, we don't even have a plank. I guess you would have to bring your own plank, BYOP, or get wet without it.
They asked us to move because this puny boat needed our spot. Jeez. The new spot is pretty cool, it is not a pier or dock, but rather, a road with lots of boats backed up to both sides of it. It has palm trees and everything, and we can drive right to the boat and park.
Recently, we went scuba diving and lobstering with our new buds Kevin and Justin off SV Catchin Rays. It was a great day on the water, and we all had a lot of fun. It is always good to get in the water and dive, we love it and it is even better when the lobster are plentiful. Joyce was feeling bad, and stayed on the boat playing admiral. There's a lobster right behind us!
Justin declares human supremacy over the area lobsters.
Can we stay longer?
Also, as expected, there are boat projects. We had some loose fittings on our gooseneck. Not turkey neck, gooseneck. That is the attachment between the boom and the mast, and the vang and the mast. A turkey neck is something else. I am not sure if we have one of those. Someone let us know. We had some great guys come out, and they fixed everything up in no time.
Also, it was time to refinish the tables on the boat, so that was started and they are almost finished.
Just one or two more coats, and this job is finished. They look so much better than before. That's it for now, Fantasy Fest is this coming week, so we will do a post on that soon!