Doug decided on a Lehr propane outboard as a replacement. What we really wanted was a 15hp 2 stroke Yamaha Enduro, but we can't get them in the US, so that's on hold... for now. Long story short, this little 2.5hp outboard is small, light weight, reliable, and will serve us well just kicking around the Chesapeake for now.
So dinghy riding season is back in full gear as part off our slow summer. We like to tool around town, go up the creek, just wander about and see the sights along our busy waterways.
Zach of course can captain the dink solo, which isn't just fun, but also useful too. When we head out sailing, we have to do this ridiculous maneuver with the dinghy. We back into our slip, and the dingy doesn't fit into the slip hanging from the arch in the back of the boat. So we leave it wit the other dinghies at the dinghy dock. So when we want to head out and go anchor somewhere, what we do is have someone drive the dinghy into the creek and wait while we get the boat out of the slip. Then we go pick them, and the dinghy up lifting it into the arch. And away we go. When the kids were little, we would ask a marina worker or neighbor to do that, and then we'd drop them back off at the fuel dock. But now we just have Zach do it.
There he is, zooming through the busy harbor away from us to take the dink back to the marina. My big kid.
Naia never likes this routine, because she always thinks we are leaving the slip without Zach, not quite grasping that he is waiting up the creek for us.
Monkey see, monkey do... Naia is learning to drive the dinghy as well.
Messing about in boats has become another aspect of our slow summer. Aside from lovely sailing weather on the big boat, we have had a fun time just tooling around in the dinghy and kayak and Zach's wee sail boat (which I have no photos of, because I never bring anything with me that I don't expect to get soaked, just in case we capsize.)
There is nothing, absolutely nothing, half so much worth doing as messing about in boats.
