Dinghy Days

We've been doing dinghy work around here. Remember the dinghy/sailing pram that Adam's making for Julia? He's been sanding it for months.

 Well, at last the sanding was done, and we had weather for painting the thing.  Julia wanted a bright red. So bright red it is!

Adam applied the paint with a roller, and Julia came behind him, doing a brush maneuver called "tipping," to get all the bubbles out of the first coat.

It looked very good. She loves the color.

She was going to name the boat "The Minuet," but somehow that elegant name doesn't go with the paint color she's chosen. She's re-evaluating the name now.

After this, they applied a second coat, and now it's beginning to look like a real boat!

Remember the little white dinghy that Adam got for free this past week? He wanted to take it on Smith Creek and see if it was sea-worthy. We drove to the Oriental public water access over at the wildlife ramp. Many other boaters had already arrived and put their boats in the water, as you see.

Julia and Adam carried the little white dinghy out on one of the floating piers.

Adam hooked up his newer 4 horsepower outboard motor to it. It was, shall we say, a bit too much motor power for a bit too little boat? Adam is heavy, so he hoped his weight in the boat would keep the weight of the motor from flipping the boat up and over. Hmm.

I can tell you, I was nervous watching them take off. It seemed there were only a few inches of gunwale showing above the water line. I just couldn't watch.
Sandy and I waited on the dock.

They disappeared into the distance. My phone rang and I chatted with my mother, but eventually I had to say good-bye because I told her I couldn't really focus on a conversation when I thought that $600 motor might be on the bottom of Smith Creek. The dinghy, I was not concerned for. Adam and Julia are both fine swimmers with life vests. But the motor? Without it, our sailing days this summer are seriously curtailed!
The fellow next to us was out of luck. He couldn't get his batteries to start on his fine fishing boat.

This young fellow didn't need motors or batteries. He's got muscle power! I don't know what they call those long boards, but they're cool.

Finally, my pair came motoring back down the creek. When they were within hollering distance, the motor ran out of gas, and they rowed the rest of the way in. Julia threw me the painter.

We got them in safe. Adam says he won't be putting that motor on a dinghy again; he could only run it just above idling, because he was afraid they would sink.
We loaded up and drove the 3 minutes back home. Even when you're nervous, Smith Creek is a nice place to spend the afternoon ~

Our temps are unusually cool, and there are no mosquitoes yet, which is something, if you know Oriental! Continued cool temps and rainy weather this week.