Location, Location, Location.

     
     "Two thousand miles I've roamed, just to make this dock my home..."
                                                                                             -Otis Redding

     The Port Dover Harbour Marina is a largish facility boasting well-lit, well-kept docks with electricity and water, all within easy walking distance of the washrooms, pavilion and ice machines...
 except Dock Six.

    Dock Six has no water, no electricity, no pavilions, and the solar lights mysteriously disappeared prior to the '09 season.  Want to take a shower? Tie on your Rockports- from the tip of Dock Six  it is a 1 kilometer walk around the marina, past docks 5, 4, 3, and 2 to get to the bath house. ( Luckily the facilities are pleasant and clean with good water pressure and lots of hot water.)

    In fact, based on the evidence, Dock Six may be entirely fictional, a myth, a low-rent northern Margaritaville.  Look at the picture at the top of this post, (shamelessly borrowed from the Marina's own website)-  Dock Six is nowhere to be seen.  Check out Google Earth- Again, nuthin.  Navionics charts, C-Map, Garmin?  All show water, where 60 slips exist in real life.  I'll prove it.  Below is photo documentation of the dock's existence:

            Anonymity has it's perqs.  Fewer (okay, no)  amenities means lower slip costs, fewer people means less noise, and the lack of water and power means that few boat owners overnight on their boats.  In fact, throughout the season we are often the only people on the dock after sundown.   Speaking of sundown, I think we have the best sunset viewing in the entire place:

               We also have a straight run out of the harbour mouth- no narrow fairways to navigate.   If you are a habitual boatwatcher like myself, there is the added bonus of every boat in the marina passing by.  I've picked up a number of rigging tips and refitting ideas simply from watching other boats sail past.  Also, on an admittedly less charitable note,  if a slipholder's return to the marina  is, er, Coast Guard- assisted, we get to witness the "Sailpast of Shame."
    Yeah, it's a bit of a walk to the shower, and we have to be more conscious of our water and power consumption than those who have dockside umbilicals, but the benefits outweigh the liabilities enough to keep us, and most of the other slipholders returning to Dock Six season after season.