An Unexpected Dilemma

This morning we decided to head over to the fuel dock to fill with diesel and get some gas in our Jerry can. A simple enough task, one would think!!
The basin at River Dunes is amply deep, not at all busy, and the weather this morning was beautiful.
Our journey over was entirely uneventful, the trip back .... not so much.

One of my goals for this trip was to become more comfortable handling the boat. Indeed, I do my share of helming underway. I am pretty much exclusively at the wheel in and out of anchorages and mooring fields, as Greg does his thing on the bow. Docking however, is different. In an anchorage if you miss your intended target by a boat length or so, it generally doesn't matter too much. Not so at a dock.

Which brings us back to this morning, returning from the fuel dock:
I said to Greg 'why don't I try this?'.
In fact, it was the perfect opportunity. We were alone on a face dock, meaning it would be like trying to parallel park, but without any other cars .... You just pull up. Easy, right?

Well, it went like this...

Greg's only words of advice were to approach the dock nice and slow, which is exactly what I did. Right up to the edge of the dock. Jessica took the spring line, slipped it around the cleat on the dock, just like she was supposed to. Greg stepped off with the bow line, handed Jessica the stern line. Ta da!!
Except that the spring line was too long, and the dinghy engine secured on the stern railing was going to hit the piling on the dock.
So, Greg took the spring line off, a little puff of wind blew the boat away from the dock, and suddenly it all went awry. Jessica pulled with all her might, but 60 pounds of her was no match for 8 tons of boat with momentum...begrudgingly, she let go, as we instructed, and the lines fell into the water.
Now I am at the helm, looking at the three of them on the dock. I'm pretty good with math, and 4 of us total, minus three of them on the dock, makes 1 of me left on the boat!

I have practiced docking before, but always with Greg on board to handle the lines (and rush to my rescue, if it all goes wrong). This time it was just me, and I have to admit, once I gathered my thoughts, gathered and clipped the dock lines to the life lines at the widest part of the beam so they could be easily picked up as I approached the dock, it all went OK. I fully appreciate that it was absolutely ideal conditions, but should there be another time that I am required to put Cee Jem on a dock on my own, I will certainly approach it with more confidence than I would have before this morning. Meanwhile, I will continue practicing, hopefully with Greg at my side!