Docking fun at Roche Harbor

So we are having fun with my brother and his GF being our first overnight cruisers. They flew into Vancouver and we overnighted at Coal Harbour with them. Left the next morning for Madrona Bay, which is by far my favorite Gulf Islands anchorage. 

I don't have a ton of pictures to share because like everyone else in August of 2018 we are enduring a lot of forest fire smoke. You can see the unusual color of the sky reflected in this picture. And this was about half as bad as most days. 

They are flying out of Roche to go home, so we planned to clear customs there. We weren't sure if we wanted to stay at the dock or anchor out, but once we got there we decided to see if they had space. They did, on G dock. The guy told me it was a bow-in port tie, or stern-in starboard tie. 

I already knew the power was at the back of the dock, and I wanted the experience, so I backed Mahalo into the slip. It's a large slip, and Mahalo is so easy, it was a piece of cake. 

I thought, "wow, this big slip is great!" Little did I know they planned to put more boats in with us. Within a couple of hours there were FIVE boats in the slip (one was the tender of one other boat). 

We were up having a beer when the put a 36 or so footer next to us. I walked down to take a look. I could barely fit one of our fenders between the boats! But anyway, it was fine. Great that they can accommodate everyone. 

When we were ready to leave the next morning, I told the guy in front of us and he said he'd move so we could depart. About all I could really do was drive straight forward. If I stayed just off the dock, I wouldn't hit anything.

Here is the starboard deck camera catching me driving from the starboard aft station. Visibility is great, and great to be so close to the dock.

You can see how the fender is crushed with the next door boat. Owner is there to fend off.

Cleared that boat and the tender. We had about 8 feet clearance to this Ranger Tug, easy enough.

The boat they put next to us is called "Happy Ending." I wanted to ask if any of them were masseuses? But I didn't. 

And the Ranger they put in with us, uh, "Tuggin Fun." 

​I'll just leave it at that!