We're back in Marathon - home to our near-sinking disaster, but this time we're on a mooring ball and the weather is fabulous! Marathon has a terrific boating community. Each morning at 9 a.m., Cruiser's Net comes on channel 68 VHF and everyone has an opportunity to announce themselves if they are new to the harbor. Then they have announcements of meet-and-greets, DVD swaps, items for sale, hailings for help and a sailor's weather report. Our first night here, we got a dinner invitation from our friends we met at Pennekamp last month. They have a roomy catamaran and lots of activity with 2 children, a laid-back dog and a verrrrry curious cat: during our dinner of pasta and shrimp, we spied Shiraz several yards down the dock investigating the police dinghy. Apparently Shiraz has taken several swims as he explores his environs. Nothing a good shake-off won't cure!
My goal at this stop is to learn to start the dinghy engine and maneuver it competently. My first attempt at starting the Suzuki 4-stroke took several tries. One of our boat neighbors finally came out and invited us aboard since we didn't seem to be going anywhere - sheeesh!!! Once engaged, I was pretty good at directing it to the dock. Coming back was another story...lots of good-natured ribbing about Va. drivers and suggestions that maybe I needed a few more drinks. A drink certainly wouldn't have hurt my technique. But I'm not giving up - I'm determined to lick this dinghy motor. I'm tired of playing Miss Daisy - I'm ready to be Earhart of the dinghy dock.
Gotta go - we're going to find out how sailors celebrate St. Pat's Day... who by the way, was WELSH, not Irish. I learned that on the Cruiser's Net this morning.
1 comment:
oh the joys of trying to get the dinghy motor to work! :)
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