Wir erinnern uns noch genau an unsere ersten Ausfahrten; und an die Schwierigkeiten, die sich dabei ergaben. Dabei war das Problem nicht das Fahren an sich, sondern das Anlegen. Die Übeltäter waren stets der Wind und die Strömung. Während der Wind offensichtlich ist, kommt die Strömung schleichend und im Geheimen daher.
Nachfolgend einige Fotos von Situationen, in denen die Bootscrew dem Desaster hilflos gegenüber steht. Die meisten stammen von unserem Liegeplatz hier in Aigues-Mortes, wo viele Mietboote mit unerfahrenen Kapitänen unterwegs sind. Hier herrscht eine starke Strömung, und weil wir in der 'Passantenabteilung' des Hafens untergebracht sind, stehen wir oft im Mittelpunkt der missglückten Anlegemanöver. Wir haben stets einen langen, gepolsterten Stock griffbereit, um Rammboote abzuwehren.
These pictures need an intro: Piloting a boat can be humbling. Cruising from A to B is usually easy enough (though you can still do bad stuff like run aground ;-> ) but maneuvering to get in a berth is often tricky, even for experienced pilots. Wind and current make the mischief. You just never know. Once, up in Nieuwpoort, I backed us into a slot in a gale like we were on train tracks, but the next day, in dead calm, I needed four or five tries to bring us alongside a long pontoon.
Below, we share some photos of the sometimes crazy situations we've seen, mostly with rental boaters. Aigues-Mortes has really been entertaining this year, but also nervous-making. It's a much-visited harbor and we have had to keep alert. We have a long, stout stick that we've used many time this season to push errant rental boats off before they collide with Plan B.
Many rental pilots are experienced boaters. But many others have no flipping idea about handling a boat. Their primary mistake? They expect a boat to react like a car. Ha-ha. A telltale sign of trouble: they lean heavily on their bow thruster, a small propeller set crosswise in the bow of a boat that let's you nudge the nose right or left. Bow thrusters, applied in short bursts, are great helpers when docking. But when you hear a long, uninterrupted whine from one of them, it's time to grab your jousting stick and get on deck.
Die Einfahrt in diese Schleuse ist schlicht zu eng, um quer durchzufahren.
Entering a lock sideways is not good.
Uh, now what? They have a line from the bow to a bollard but the boat still isn't on the wall. Dad, it's your turn!
Two mooring exercises in Chalon-sur-Saône. The idea is to park parallel to the pontoon. Thank goodness the harbor crew was there to help....
That me, pushing off a great big rental with our trusty staff. I was sputtering curses as I did so. This was a close one.
And that's our neighbor Alain, left, on his big Aquanaut, ready to defend against a Ram-boat. Common rookie error: they push off with the sharp end of the boat hook, which can scratch, instead of the fat handle.
Alain and wife, this time preparing for an assault from the port side.
Another 'touch-and-go' parking maneuver. Many of the renters are unaware that their boat has a bow thruster, a 'propulseur d'étrave,' as we have learned it's called in French.
These people clearly are at wit's end. In that pithy phrase from the US military, coded in the acronym OTF, they are really Out There Flappin', that is, clueless. Eventually, they bumped their way into place. For the record, at the time, I was not amused by their shenanigans. They were bold and utterly misguided. And the guy on the right is from the rental office! He should have intervened (assuming, of course, that he actually had a clue, which may be optimistic)!
Stick time again. They also needed to be reminded to use their bow thruster. I guess they had been shown this nifty steering aid when they picked up the boat a few hours earlier and then promptly forgot it. And here we see the crew member turning her boathook around, as we instructed, to use the blunt end against Plan B. Whew! We were very reluctant to leave the boat unattended for a couple of weeks, I can tell you.
The preferred mooring method seems to be Braille. The rental pilots often just bump into the neighboring boats and bounce to their spot. You can see how well they are protected, with thick rubber bumpers at all contact points. But the rest of us are not so well padded and we don't like this approach.
