Took the family on our first family sunset cruise tonight! As I’m still trying to get used to the new gas motor pulling out of the dock was a bit dicy today. The boat did not cooperate steering away from the dock using the rudder and started veering towards the bank full of rocks. This caused me to compensate with too much power on the motor and nearly hitting the dock. In the end I was able to pull away with a slightly bruised ego and a only slightly freaked out family.
The cruise was very peaceful and it was much cooler temperature on the water than away. Something about the river at sunset is very calming. I did not put the sails up tonight as we were limited on time and wanted to get back before dark, but once I got under the Coraopolis bridge and into a wide open waters of Neville Island point, it became breezy and would have been a perfect time to sail. I’ll keep that in mind for next time when we have a bit more time.
On the way, while trying to dock, a large barge passed us, causing a huge wake and resulting in us having to abort the docking attempt. On take two, we brought the boat back to the dock, although still taking much longer due to the tight space with another boat next to us and the rocky bank right beyond it.
