The next day we took the dinghy
to the small village of La Manzanilla. This time, before we left the beach, we watched the waves to gauge when the biggest set had passed. After a few minutes it looked like we were in the clear, so we dragged the dinghy from the beach to the water, jumped in as soon as we were thigh-high, and pulled the cord to start the engine. When I turned around I saw a wave building three, four, and then five feet high. “Gun it!” I yelled. Brian turned the engine to full throttle and we sped straight up the face of the wave. Just as the whitewater was beginning to form we launched off the top of the wave, flew ten feet through the air and landed on the backside of the swell. 4. The outboard doesn’t always
run and can stop running right in the middle of A and B. I mentioned that we have a powerful outboard to propel us through the water. The problem is that it doesn’t always want to do its job. I’ve nicknamed our outboard Ramon, and Ramon has a disagreeable personality. When we were anchored in La Paz, Ramon decided to take a night off when the current was running 3-knots
against us. Brian had to paddle 200 yards to our boat, a feat that took more than 30 minutes. After we dove with the Sea Lions,
just north of La Paz, Ramon quit when we were still a few miles from our anchorage, in the midst of five- foot seas and 20 knots of wind. Brian was able to coax Ramon back to life but it was a tense hour and a half. A few years ago, some fisherman off the coast of Mexico drifted out to sea after their outboard stopped working. Eight months later they made landfall on one of the Marshall Islands—more than 6000 miles away. We always carry paddles with us. 5. A dinghy is fair game on the
beach. We’ve heard from cruisers that dinghies and outboard engines are hot commodities down here. We haven’t encountered any thieves, but… When we were anchored in San Blas we landed our dinghy on the beach and returned a few hours later to find three stray dogs peeing on, in and around our dinghy. In Melaque we pulled the dinghy onto the beach and walked a block into town to the nearest bank. A few minutes later we caught two young boys trying to
push our dinghy into the pounding surf. Their mom was watching a few yards away, approvingly. Lately I’ve been dreaming about
cars… Cars with leather bucket seats that you sink down into; cars with power windows that keep the rain out and air conditioning in; cars with windshields, cars with tires, cars with trunks, cars with backseats. But, then again, in a car, you don’t
feel the wind on your face when you drive down the road; you’re inside even when it’s beautiful outside; you can’t commute on the water; and you have to deal with traffic, stoplights, and speed limits. And you definitely can’t anchor a car just outside the surf break and paddle into the line-up. It might be rough and wet, but I
guess I won’t trade-in my dinghy for a car anytime soon. For now, I’ll just hang on and enjoy the ride.
Visit Erin’s blog at:
http://svdelos.blogspot.com/2010/01/ dinghy-vs-car-by-erin.html
YAGER
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48° NORTH, JULY 2010 PAGE 43
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