Spent another couple hours rehearsing on the 10^th, but this time with John & Carol, long-time friends visiting from NY. My last dock approach was the best yet, as the dance between throttle, gear shifter, wheel and bow thrusters gets more familiar. Drifted in so gently one might wrongly assume I knew what I was doing!

Actually had breakers splashing over the breaker wall, and whitecapped rollers marching into the Hawk Channel inlet, so we stayed in the canals, but the temperature was great, and we tied up just in time for dinner.

J&C took turns at the helm, both getting a feel for the Eleanor P within minutes. Like all sailboats, she’s sluggish and she over-steers at idle speed, but give her some throttle, and add a little bow thruster, and she’ll twirl on her keel like a ballerina. Rough seas today (Sat.), but tomorrow might be a good day for our bayside passage. We’ll see…..