Welcome to Muskegon
Making a slip reservation used to be done via the VHF once you'd gotten within hailing distance of the marina. Then cell phones came on the scene and reservations could be made at a greater distance. Today I discovered that the method is evolving yet again with Dockwa.
A recording on Harbour Town Marina's answering machine told me that if I wanted a reservation I had to go through Dockwa. Dock what? It turns out that Dockwa is a smartphone app being used by more and more marinas to automate their reservations and payments. Who knew? I dutifully made the reservation through Dockwa and then not so patiently waited for a response. None came. Shortly we arrived at the marina. With no slip assignment we moored at the fuel dock. The attendant, a nice young man, asked if he could help. "We're waiting for our slip assignment," I said. "Did you make a reservation through Dockwa," he asked. Once he understood that we had, but had not heard back, he called the dock master. Minutes later the dock master, Jim, arrived and introduced himself. With me watching, Jim found an empty slip, logged onto Dockwa, and made the assignment. Almost instantly my phone notified me of a new email. It was from Dockwa; slip D-1 was ours and we're $55.50 poorer.
Looking back over the transaction I have to chuckle. I enjoyed meeting Jim and talking about Harbour Towns' efforts to streamline operations. But our conversation, in a perfect Dockwa world, wouldn't have taken place. Perhaps to keep the human touch in our increasingly automated interactions we need to, occasionally at least, throw a little sand into the gears.
SS Barbie-Q--Old Boats Never Die, They Become Billboards
The Silversides
Grand Haven, MI to Muskegon, MI
It was a long 15 miles from Grand Haven to Muskegon. The lumpy seas hit us on the beam with waves large enough to make things uncomfortable. The trip's total is now 1074. On the positive side, we got into Muskegon before 1000 hours. This gave us plenty of time to explore the area. DBH
