Boom Times Sailing!: Pay to Stay

Staying in marinas is very expensive, likely our biggest projected expense and we hope to limit this by anchoring (free) or taking mooring balls (significantly cheaper) as much as possible. The weather radio was calling for some pretty apocalyptic thunderstorm, hail and "damaging" winds though and since we were beat from being on the go so much over the last few days (weeks? months?) we decided the time was right for our first time paying to stay securely at a dock. After evaluating our options we pulled up to the "transient" dock at Chipman's Point Marina. So strange to be considered a transient, such negative connotations in "land life". We dropped $45 for $1.25/ft overnight and a gallon of diesel. While I'm not thrilled about the spending money to stay in what is now our my own home (if I wanted to do that I would buy a house and pay property taxes) I do think we made an excellent choice of places to stay. Chipman's is composed of two wonderfully historic buildings (1829) with that warm old world feel. At first we couldn't find a soul in the office (chits on cork board) / snack bar (muffins under a antique cake platter) / little store (incl. box of stuff marked "free") until an older couple moseyed on down the natural rock staircase on the hill and, in thick Long Island accents, welcomed us. They were not the proprietors or staff but assured us that someone would be along sometime. Slower pace of life. Loved it! Soaked it up! This couple introduced us to another boater who had Carribean sailing experience, who later introduced us to yet another with even more! I was all ears to gain from their advice.

We finally got all settled up and settled in. Shower time, our first in 5 days; Cassandra opted to use the marina's facilities but I tested our on board shower for the first time and am thrilled to report that it worked wonderfully! There was minimal leakage around the sink faucet tap which the shower shares and it seems the sealing repair I did in late July worked. Pressure was strong, too strong in fact! Water was hot, too hot in fact!

The next morning we slept in because it was pouring rain, although with hardly any wind or waves. Finally around 11:30 we pushed off from the dock and slowly left Chipman's behind. The reception we got there was so friendly I almost felt as if we should do the rounds and bid our new friends adieu, but alas the the life of a transient boater is... well transient. We now go as unexpectedly as we come.

The thunderstorms, hail and damaging winds never came.