Looking back I can see that the wind coming in from the north meant that as we came out of our slip pointing east/west, our bow would be pushed heavily to the south away from the direction we wanted to go. It certainly was. Our neighbours powerful boat was, after two attempts able to power through the turn, which was the technique I decided to follow. As it turned out, the wind was too much for our temporary dinghy electric motor mount. The wooden mount failed as I thought I had to up the throttle to try to make ground forward into the wind. I should have worked with the wind and swung south, using the wind, rather than having fought it. Our sister boat, a 25 foot C&C, with our other neighbour at helm, demostrated just minutes after our failed attempt, just how easy it could be done with a low power dinghy motor by just looping around to the south using the wind to advantage.
When the mount broke in half I, fortunately, had thought to attach an emergency line to catch the motor from sinking after the failure (I had even looked at the mount earlier and said to myself it looks like it might be warping...and surely I should have known it would fail sooner or later). Everyone remained calm. I asked crew to prepare to fend off as we began to drift for a couple seconds in the dock area. A familiar face happened to be motoring by in a dinghy, so, calmly, I asked for some help to get back into our slip as our motor had failed. They quickly agreed and began pulling our bow line around. Seeing that assistance was required, our neighbours helped us come in to dock without any further mishap. We also had another member come in as a backup to make sure all was okay. Help others when they are in need as you will surely need their help one day.
Despite the safety line catching the motor, it looks like the battery may have been damaged by the water...what a sick feeling knowing that. Hopefully the motor system is still okay...I think it will be. I'll get a replacement battery and we'll be back on track with a significantly beefed up temporary dinghy motor mount (ideally, that will not be needed) and a great deal learned about the way to work with the wind especially if your boat is working under less than ideal mechanical repair.
Hard as this has been, and as hard as it is to have to take all the feedback from those that know better, this is what it is all about. Learning from the school of hard knocks is painful and hard to deal with at the time, but the kind of thing that expands your knowledge of the situation deeply and memorably. People will tell you, "I told you so", and they will be right, but they are the same people that would not have tried and would not have learned from those same mistakes. How do you deal with your boat when/if it loses power when going to dock...been there now. How do you deal with high winds coming across your port side when exiting your slip...work with the wind, and feel comfortable looping around to the south rather than always fighting the difficult conditions. Build repairs beefier and with better back up systems than you might initially conceive of. Like in baseball, anticipate what each component will do in a failure situation so that the backup systems handle them better. Think of the forces that will impact any and all of the systems on the boat, from lines, halyards, buckles, shrouds and pulleys, and imagine how well they will hold up under the worst possible weather conditions, not fair/average weather. Obvious stuff but particularly real once you've made mistakes.
When it rains it pours. Our home solar system is being held up from being turned on by the Electrical Safety Authority (ESA) which leaves me holding the bag on an expensive system that is supposed to generate income to pay for itself. After two months of waiting for our supplier/installer to work it out with ESA, still no resolution. Today our electrician has proposed a voltage transformer to try to address the concern. The waiting and not knowing is hard to deal with. You want to do something about it to move things along, you try to push, when things aren't moving, and you instigate a little forward motion, and then you wait some more. Hopefully we'll hear soon, that this will resolve their concern which my installer is telling me should not be a concern. Familiary story.
Similar story with the electric motor for the boat. Much of the current frustration with the electric dinghy could have been avoided had things simply moved along with fewer hurdles and difficulties. Life isn't like that though. Certainly we made mistakes in this process and we'll learn from them as well. Good things take time and they are hard, especially when they are the road less travelled. We are learning more than I could have imagined about things I had not even thought of. I know that all of this will become the backbone of what gets us through the tough stuff up ahead.
My Grandma used to say tough times don't last just tough people. These things will be overcome and the extra difficulties will make them all the more satisfying once accomplished. Sometimes you just have to take it, take it from everyone as best you can, take it from yourself when you are harder on you than anyone else and come back out fighting harder than ever to make it happen. Dreams don't just happen, you have to fight to make them real, and they don't happen without mistakes. Kick yourself and tell yourself to do better next time. Your dream is worth it.
