Tuesday, March 01, 2005

Journal Entry – Tuesday March 1, 2005 – Dinghy Hell

Author: Scott

While training for our departure to sail around the world many sailing skills were tested and refined, but who ever thought that dinghy driving in adverse conditions would be so important. Just throw an engine on that big blow-up raft and you are off to shore… In retrospect (like so many other lessons learned on the voyage) we would have spent a little more time learning to master the art of dinghy driving. Sure we have improved our skills along the way and I would now say that we are at least average in our dinghy abilities, but then out of nowhere comes reminders that a tad more dinghy diligence would have paid off in many ways, take today for an example:

We headed out for town in our dinghy ready for a full day of errands and the conditions seemed calm and the weather was beautiful. We had approached the dinghy landing now a few times and we were not at all concerned because thus far our dinghy landings have been in calm and benign surf. To make matters even better there is Nathan who assists cruisers to land their dinghy and then guards dinghies for a five peso propina (tip). We were making our final approach amidst a slew of pangas anchored just off the beach with Sparky and Jim just behind us in another dinghy. Everything seemed in order and Nathan was standing in the surf ready to meet our dinghy. Then in a split second I caught a large breaker out of the corner of my eye (my good eye) and the next second I was thrown off the dinghy and splash right into the water. I felt the dinghy continue on without me and fortunately the engine died because I am in the habit of wearing the safety shutoff key on my wrist just for these occasions. I pulled myself to my feet, covered in sand looking like Sigmund the Sea Monster and trudged onto the beach. Apparently my artful back flip from the dinghy provided the necessary counter balance to the force of the rogue wave and the dinghy managed to surf the remainder of the way into the beach leaving Pam high and only half wet. As I was brushing off the sand another cruiser came up to us and told us that the judges on the dock had awarded us with a 9.5 and that we now held the prize for the narliest dinghy landing of this Z-town season.

Now let’s move forward into the evening. All of the excitement of the earlier dinghy debacle was forgotten over dinner with friends. We had retrieved our laundry from the local Laundromat and we were preparing to head back to the boat. Again the breakwater was calm and we waded out into the surf to launch the dinghy. We must have pissed off Neptune or perhaps the lesser laundry gods because no sooner had we got the dinghy out into the water than a wave broke right over the bow of the dinghy filling it and completely swamping our once clean and pristinely folded laundry. At this point we just stood there laughing frozen with the giggles over our day’s tender trouble, when a second wave came along to provide us with an instant replay of the first dinghy swamping. Still giddy with the absurdity of it all we just climbed into our new salt water Jacuzzi and slogged off with our motor working overtime to push us along in our tub. Back at the boat we bailed the dink (cruiser slang for dinghy) and managed to get our waterlogged laundry on deck to await its return to the Laundromat.

We are now warm and dry on the boat, our laundry sits outside waiting for the ride back into town, and I am wondering why I share stories like this on our journal. I think it is because it is the silly stuff like today’s dinghy fiasco that truly illustrates the spirit of the cruising life. Each day is a random set of challenges and accomplishments and there is always something new to learn. Each cruiser has a hundred stories to share about the challenges but nobody wants to hear about the nine out of ten times that you have a perfect dinghy landing. So, if you are thinking of cruising the world in a small sailboat remember to practice your dinghy launches and landings and then you might have a slightly better than fair chance of staying dry some of the time.

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