Making an entrance

We heard the boats haling the marina via radio but no one in the office responded. Not unusual, that happened to us as well. After a few unanswered hails, Byron took the call as acting ambassador of the facility and told the incoming boats that he would advise the office that they were on approach. He grabbed the handheld radio and strolled up the dock to go find the dock boys. I follow him out and greet the first one of the boats as they tied up in the slip right next to ours. Their lines were quickly secured and Byron continued down the dock to help the other boat. I learn our new neighbors are Dan and Lorraine on Zephyrus. they have been cruising Mexico for three and a half years. In our chat I asked them what their plans were. Dan says they are staying here for a couple of days and then plan to head for Ecuador. Another transient cruiser lost to the Ecuadorian climate. It seems to be a popular destination from here.

The other boat that pulled in with them are their friends Ralph & Cheryl on Fortuitous. As they were coming in close to the dock, Cheryl was obviously having troubles trying to untangle her dock lines. She tossed the bow line off to dock manger Julio in a tangled mess, but it made it- barely. Then she tossed the tangled stern line to Byron and it fell short. She must have known it wasn't going to work and tossed the line with such conviction that she followed it right off the boat and splashed into the water next to the dock. The humorous nature aside, this was in reality a dangerous situation. The boat is not secure and drifting oddly with a the current and breeze, the motor is on and the propeller is turning, and there is only one other guy aboard the boat and he can't leave the helm. In this case, docking was finished up nicely and without further trauma. We were in luck the boat was drifting away from the dock and not towards.

After Cheryl was hauled out of the water onto the dock (in a effort to minimize her humiliation) Byron said, "How refreshing, I think I'll try that! Welcome to Fish Hook Marina!"

It's good for us to see that even seasoned cruisers trip up every now and then.

(clockwise from bottom L: Cheryl, Ralph, Dan, Lorraine)