Tight squeeze at Dolphin Cove

November 15, 2014

Fort Bragg, California

This morning I fueled LightSpeed at Dolphin Cove about 1/2 mile up the Noyo from the Noyo river boat basin marina, beware the river is shallow.   It was either run the gauntlet getting into Dolphin Cove or side tie to a commercial fuel wharf.  Without fender boards and crew, there would be a good chance that the piles at the commercial wharf would leave a few marks.

So, I threaded the needle to get in and out of Dolphin Cove.  Once inside the tiny mairina, the fun continued with very little turning room and a unoccupied sport fishing boat that was hogging the slip I needed to access the fuel dock.  I had to improvise and  pulled off a side tie to the end of the 6' wide fuel wharf finger... wish I would have got a photo of that!  The fuel hose was too short, yet undefeated I filled jerry jugs, decanting them into the tanks.  In the end the commercial wharf would probably been worth the risk of a scuff on the rail.

On the way out of Dolphin Cove I filmed the narrow pass.