Make the best of the free help. You can always ask the captain to observe you and your crew taking the vessel to the first mark and back to the dock as your first day captain checkout. In other waters that is a standard check out. Take one of the guys on the dock to a set mark and back to drop him or her off.

If you read the fine print most of the contracts allow the charter company to restrict the entire charter to the dock of the charter company chooses to do so for any reason. Once you hand the deposit over the charter company has all the cards.