Tuesday 25 September Alongside in Musket Cove Marina

Make way! Admiral coming ashore

Mediterranean mooring style

On Sunday we came in to the maria at Musket Cove – a very simple marina with Med style, stern to berthing for around a dozen boats. This was our first time to Med moor although David has been crew on a delivery boat and experienced the technique first hand. First we lined up the stern with where we wanted to finish up on the dock then motored forward, dropped the anchor and laid the chain on the floor as we eased back to the dock. Then we passed two stern lines to helpers on the dock who flipped then over cleats and all we had to do was adjust the tension between anchor chain and stern lines to hold us off. As a treat David put out the passarelle so I could embark ad disembark in a ladylike manner instead of leaping like a mad thing 'tween dock and deck.

Our reason for coming in was to give our batteries a long charge with shore power to help their day-to-day performance and (hopefully) extends the life. It's been 5 months since we were last alongside in Auckland. For me it's an opportunity to use the hose pipe and fresh water to scrub the cockpit and top decks. When you start looking it's amazing how much dirt and dust has sneaked into every nook and cranny.