AAR

That's After Action Review. We hold one after every incident in the fire department. What happened, what went right, what went wrong, how do we fix it, how can we be better next time. AAR is a good tool in many different applications.

AAR: charge the batteries to the "marriage saving device (MSD)" headset the night before...

Big day yesterday onboard the Falcon Ranch.  We pulled out of the slip and went over to the gas dock.  The gas dock is actually 2 docks, like a “U" which allows up to 4 boats to fuel at a time. The winds were blowing me around, so I missed going into one, backed up and wound up on the other side of it.  Ha ha!  Fill ‘er up and pump out the holding tanks please.  That’s when we found out the holding tank valve is on the port side of the boat, and I had docked with the starboard side at the dock. 

Looking upriver towards Lock 3. Gate is on the left side.

No worries.  We wanted to get a sense of fuel consumption anyway, so our plan had been to fill up with fuel, go through Lock 3, cruise around and then top off the tanks again. Not realizing the holding tank was only on one side of the boat just delayed sucking out the holding tanks until after the cruise.  No worries – see, I’m getting better at this retired/boating life.

Gate is just starting to open, Falcon Ranch is inside the lock.

So we headed up to Lock 3.  Last year we tried to go through it twice, and both times we were held up by commercial barges, which take precedence going through locks.  I checked my handy-dandy MarineTraffic app and saw there was no traffic on the river and we should be clear.  For whatever reason, both Julie and I were pretty apprehensive/nervous about going through locks.  We got to Lock 3 and I heard a guy call the lock on the radio who was heading downriver, so he beat me to the punch and we had to wait for him to a: get to the lock (he was a mile away when he called), b: the lock to close, c: the lock to drain to our level, and d: gates to open and him to leave.

In the lock on the return trip.

Then right as he entered, I heard another boat call that was going downriver, so they held the gate for him.  We wound up making circles for about 45 minutes on the south side of the gate.  No worries!  The weather was perfect, it was good practice to use the transmissions to move the boat around instead of the rudder. 

Easing up to the ladder. Part of our apprehension is that concrete walls will always win in a boat collision...

The gates finally opened and both boats came out, we waited until it was appropriate to enter the lock.  Right side wall or left side wall?  My fenders were on my starboard side, so I went to the right side wall of the lock.  Wrong!!  It didn’t matter as we were the only boat, but it is better to go to the side where the Lock House is, that’s where the workers are, and they can lower a line to you. You can see all the AAR items taking place... 

Julie took this while we were in the lock.

However, no worries, we got into the lock, Julie had her life jacket on (required in locks), and Biscuit was back with me in the cockpit.  She held onto a ladder that is built into the lock wall as the water filled the lock (it was about a 4 foot height difference between the upper and lower lakes).  She was very brave about the whole ordeal, as there were spiders in the ladderwell.  Small ones, fortunately.  She also was not positioned at the midline of our boat, so it was harder for her to keep it in place.  AAR, people.

The gates opened, the horn sounded and we headed out.  Success!  We went through our first lock!!  So we drove out, turned around, and drove back in to go downriver.  We were, once again, the only boat and one of the lock workers told us just to float in the middle.  She also explained to Julie about what side to go to (lock house) and that it was different for each lock on the river.  Biscuit stayed up front with Julie this time, the spiders don’t bother him.

Well, that was a lot of excitement and a big “check in the box.”  We decided to head back, top off the tanks, park at our slip and have a celebratory bourbon and cigar.  (My standards for a celebratory bourbon and cigar are very, very low, by the way.  Waking up in the morning is reason enough to celebrate…).

'MURICA!!

I was easing into the fuel dock, just using the transmissions.  Everything was smooth and then Boom! it wasn’t.  I kind of hit the dock.  Not a big crash, no damage, just…well…dang.  I must have been over-thinking it.  The dock girls got lines on our cleats and pulled us the rest of the way in. We topped off the gas tanks, for our 2 hours of cruising time we used 4 gallons of gas per engine.  Not too bad, we averaged around 7.5 mph.

Chicks dig scars, right?  That’s what all us boys said when I was growing up.  We all got broken bones and cuts and stitches (mainly from being stupid), so that was the cool thing to say back in the 70’s.  I hope they do because I put my first scar on the Falcon Ranch when we were backing into the slip.

Everything was going smooth, Julie said it was spot-on, but then I over-thought it again and rammed into one of the docks with our swim platform.  First scar!  No worries!!  Glad I got that out of the way!  This is cause for celebration, where’s my cigar?!!

Blessings to all ya’ll!!