Our new dinghy.  Ahem… davit points are a bit further out; some adjustment is in order.

Alas, I was deluded on Dec. 4th when I wrongly proclaimed “Dinghy Dramas… Done!” (click here for that). Okay, this time it wasn’t really a drama, thank goodness.  Suckers for a “bigger boat” or in this case, dinghy, we are now on our 4th dinghy in a little over a year.  

To be fair, the first two dinghies leaked like a sieve; so much so we threw them away.  Our third (see “Dinghy Dramas“) was fine, really.  It was a roll-up, which we figured would be perfect when we added a windvane off our davit, where we currently hang our dinghy when not out and about in it; we’d roll it up and stash it on our foredeck.  At 8′, it was light, easy to carry and made of sun-sturdy hypalon.  Only, we decided not to get a windvane after all.  Those long rides from anchorages were slow, all the more so when we drug along heavily loaded down from grocery runs.

Thanks to Boatswain’s Locker (click here for their info) our bimini and dodger’s back up.  Notice how nicely the water beads up?

Working at West Marine with access to awesome employee discounts provided strong incentive to “trade up.”  Thanks again to Craig’s List, we sold our Apex (to a couple with a smaller boat who wanted a roll-up), and bought a larger, ten footer with a rib bottom (fiberglass, non-roll-up).  We stuck with hypalon (click here for specs).

We’re waiting until we leave the green slime (watch for a future post on that) in our marina to test-drive our new chariot.  At 10′, it’s roomier and sits higher on the water.  With a ribbed bottom, it will plane much faster.  Sure, we’ll curse it when we have to carry it; not including the weight of our outboard, it 93 lbs. –26 lbs. heavier than our Apex.  

Sunbrella sunscreen and  water resistance for our bimini and dodger.  Boatswain recommended 303 Fabric Guard, Wayne applied it; worked like  a charm !(click here for product info).

Wayne got a little taste of that carrying it out to our boat. We’re incredibly grateful to the fellow from Lamb’s Yacht Center (click here to learn about Lamb’s) and his friend with a good-sized truck who spared us lashing it to our tiny Plymouth Neon’s roof.  They not only drove it home for us, their “No good deed goes unpunished” was helping Wayne loft it out to to our boat, which is a ways down the dock at Oretega landing.  “What, are you the last boat on the dock?”  they asked, laughing.  “Ummm…. no, but close,” we admitted, about a third of the way there.

A lot more of these empty slips in our marina as the Southern seasonal cruising migration begins.

We look forward to our first test drive.  Really. It means we’ll once again be footloose and fancy free.  That’s just over a week away!

And the countdown to push-off continues!