Yes, you can theoretically motor your boat to and from the Alexandria City Docks but that is most likely the extent of the whole experience. Typically, one of two scenarios will occur. The BEST scenario is that you are miraculously offered a transient slip, you dock, and then you promptly leave your boat as the waterfront doesn't offer any reason to stay on or near your boat. Taking a car or taxi to Alexandria is a heck of a lot easier as a transportation vehicle than a 47 foot boat …. or any size boat for that matter. The second scenario is what has occurred to us 'every' time. After contacting the Alexandria City Dock Master anywhere from a month in advance to no prior notification, the answer is always that they cannot accommodate a vessel that large. We all know that we have seen larger vessels than mine there. At first you may think that I don't get a space because I pissed them off before. Au Contrare! I haven't received dock space ONCE, so I'm still waiting for an opportunity to piss them off.

So, 90% of the boating season ends up being at the wall at Georgetown Harbor or anchored at three-sisters island above Georgetown. The other 10% of the season is an occasional trip to Mattawoman, Tim's Rivershore, or Fairview Beach. Luckily, there is always a friendly face waiting to help tie you up and hand you a drink. Its pretty much a summer-long Friday night party with 90% of the boats going back to their marinas after the party. It is definitely the place to sit on your boat, people-watch and socialize. Saturday and Saturday night typically have a different crowd. I guess after the blow-out on Friday night, the majority of folks are in recovery mode. Sunday you will see a lot of the Friday night characters tied up together up at Three Sisters Island, with an occasional foray down to Georgetown Harbor.

The Captain and Crew of Livin' Nauti' typically do not go back to Washington Marina training session at Gold's Gym Saturday morning. If the cops haven't thrown everybody off the wall around 1 or 2 am, Livin' Nauti' will stay overnight on the wall. Otherwise, Livin' Nauti' will pull off the wall and throw anchor and spend the night on hook. You would think that the crew of Livin' Nauti' would be awakened earlier by people at Georgetown Harbor, but alas, the 'crew' boaters and the sculling canoe people seem to get up 4 hours before dawn. The best is that goofy guy on the megaphone at 6 a.m. Saturday morning while he ignores the no-wake zone zooming past us. Oh well, we didn't need more than 3 hours sleep anyway.

And the canoe people are just plain dangerous. One day a couple hours AFTER the sun came up, a woman literally ran right into the bow of my anchored boat near the shore across from Georgetown. I was preparing breakfast and by the time we got outside, SHE yelled at US that we should have warned HER! I guess she wanted us to warn her that we were an anchored, non-moving, non-swinging 47 feet long by 14 feet wide by 18 feet high motoryacht that happened to be in fairly close proximity to 5 other motorboats and a large outcrop of rocks behind us that she would eventually have hit if she hadn't hit my boat. Stupid me, I was expecting her to apologize for running into my boat.

So, other than a few folks that seem to live in oblivion, Georgetown Harbor and the surrounding anchorage spots are a great place to find your other boating friends or strangers that quickly become 'boating-weather' friends. Most of the boaters both at the 'wall' at Georgetown and at Three Sisters will not only welcome but also aggressively encourage you to come on board and socialize. The international flair is always ever-present at the wall. Plus if you want your boat in thousands of pictures across the world that would be the place to go.

Of course, you need to either stay close to your boat or take some precautions when you are at Georgetown Harbor. Some people will literally walk onto and into your boat for less than admirable or legal reasons. However, most of the damage and/or mishaps occur with both boaters and non-boaters that have obviously lost most common sense while intoxicated. My favorite: boaters jumping onto and/or walking across my newly waxed (slippery) 1/8 inch (thin) fiberglass swim locker top rather than walk on any of the '3' viable non-skid large walk areas RIGHT next to the locker. Since this is my first boat, I'm sure I will stop cringing after a couple of years.

One of the great things about Georgetown is that most of the boaters will let you tie up next to them and treat you like you were an expected guest. Most of us have figured out we just need some big bumpers and good use of spring lines to ensure that everybody gets a spot AND keep all the boats undamaged. And yes, there are some notorious jerks that do not allow anybody to tie up to them at the wall … but what goes around comes around. The other aspect that I find especially cool is that there is really not a 'class' system amongst most boaters in DC. We all know the value of the boats around us because we have all gone through that evaluation process before buying our own boat. Plus most boaters can't help but look at other boats in the magazines, in the boat shows and /or on the internet. I know I am just as concerned about damaging somebody's $25,000 boat as somebody's $1,000,000 boat and I believe most other boaters are the same.

Three Sisters and the anchorage areas across from Georgetown provide an avenue for both swimming in somewhat cleaner and safer water as well as a good atmosphere for sunning and socializing in a fairly quiet and tree-lined waterway. There is a bit of a current so you might want to tether your float to a boat just in case you fall asleep, but I'm pretty sure you won't be left out there floating alone long enough to fall asleep anyway. And typically somebody will even bring you a refreshing cocktail.