Concluding dinghy adventures
March 30th 2007 05:12
.Conclusion of dinghy adventures.
Have you ever been kissed by a rubber duckie? We boaters call most inflatable boats rubber duckies. Even the huge RIBs with two hundred and fifty horses on the back get this modest tag. Inflatable boats are handy, due to their being able to be deflated and stowed, light, durable and well priced. They can at a pinch be rowed, though it is a pig of a job to do. Most have small outboards that come off for storage.
Incidentally to avoid bursting a gut, try using the topping lift on your boom to lift the outboard in and out of the dinghy. Some I know are very small and light but you are still over balanced like a circus clown to do the job. Similarly the topping lift on the spinnaker boom can be a good way to lift your dinghy on to the foredeck. But I digress, lets talk about how to get kissed by a rubber duckie.
I was delivering a Catalina 32 from Hamilton Island to Sydney for the owner. He also wanted his inflatable dinghy to arrive with the yacht. There was room to have it on the deck but my crew and I decided to drag it behind us with the engine removed and safely stored in the hatch below. We had it on a fairly long painter and with trial and error managed to find the right distance to tow it. For the less experienced boater not all dinghies tow the same and even the one you are used to sometimes has to be adjusted to the changing conditions. We had not planned any trips ashore to deserted islands but if the opportunity to do so arose we would avail ourselves.
All through the Whitsunday group we towed and down the Queensland coast. Behind Frazer Island and through Moreton Bay and again out into the Tasman Sea form Southport to brave the southern swells. Oh so very well behaved the dinghy towed along behind.
It was night and I was steering with another crewman on watch with me. We had to hand steer this boat and it was hard grind after so many days and nights. We generally do not stop for the night and just keep sailing through. It was around 0100 hrs and the wind was picking up and the boat was racing along singing her own song to us which was a combination of sighing from the rigging and water gurgling down her hull. A true symphony of nature. Suddenly I had an eerie feeling that some one was peering at me. I looked toward my crewmate, but he was hunkered down in the doghouse taking a nap. I looked out at the star spangled sea and all I could see was the tops of the dark waves and hear the soughing of the rising wind.
The feeling would not leave me. I looked behind me around me and above me. Nothing unusual in that as it is part of keeping a look out at sea. Check for other boats and try to catch a glimpse of buoys on fish traps before you run them down. Just an eerie feeling of being watched. I let the feeling disappear after a while and all was well. Suddenly I felt a rush of wind against my face and a wet smack on the cheek. I looked over in time to see the dinghy falling off the back of a wave. Relief and a call to my crew for assistance and we soon lengthened the painter to stop the problem.
With the rising wind we also had rising seas. Not realising that the dinghy, being lighter than the yacht, would get up on the plane and surf down the waves. On this occasion it had surfed down and overtaken the next wave to sit up proud and point her wet nose out and plant a “kiss” on my cheek.
Well so endeth my tales on dinghies, thank you for dropping by. More boating tales soon.
Have you ever been kissed by a rubber duckie? We boaters call most inflatable boats rubber duckies. Even the huge RIBs with two hundred and fifty horses on the back get this modest tag. Inflatable boats are handy, due to their being able to be deflated and stowed, light, durable and well priced. They can at a pinch be rowed, though it is a pig of a job to do. Most have small outboards that come off for storage.
Incidentally to avoid bursting a gut, try using the topping lift on your boom to lift the outboard in and out of the dinghy. Some I know are very small and light but you are still over balanced like a circus clown to do the job. Similarly the topping lift on the spinnaker boom can be a good way to lift your dinghy on to the foredeck. But I digress, lets talk about how to get kissed by a rubber duckie.
I was delivering a Catalina 32 from Hamilton Island to Sydney for the owner. He also wanted his inflatable dinghy to arrive with the yacht. There was room to have it on the deck but my crew and I decided to drag it behind us with the engine removed and safely stored in the hatch below. We had it on a fairly long painter and with trial and error managed to find the right distance to tow it. For the less experienced boater not all dinghies tow the same and even the one you are used to sometimes has to be adjusted to the changing conditions. We had not planned any trips ashore to deserted islands but if the opportunity to do so arose we would avail ourselves.
All through the Whitsunday group we towed and down the Queensland coast. Behind Frazer Island and through Moreton Bay and again out into the Tasman Sea form Southport to brave the southern swells. Oh so very well behaved the dinghy towed along behind.
It was night and I was steering with another crewman on watch with me. We had to hand steer this boat and it was hard grind after so many days and nights. We generally do not stop for the night and just keep sailing through. It was around 0100 hrs and the wind was picking up and the boat was racing along singing her own song to us which was a combination of sighing from the rigging and water gurgling down her hull. A true symphony of nature. Suddenly I had an eerie feeling that some one was peering at me. I looked toward my crewmate, but he was hunkered down in the doghouse taking a nap. I looked out at the star spangled sea and all I could see was the tops of the dark waves and hear the soughing of the rising wind.
The feeling would not leave me. I looked behind me around me and above me. Nothing unusual in that as it is part of keeping a look out at sea. Check for other boats and try to catch a glimpse of buoys on fish traps before you run them down. Just an eerie feeling of being watched. I let the feeling disappear after a while and all was well. Suddenly I felt a rush of wind against my face and a wet smack on the cheek. I looked over in time to see the dinghy falling off the back of a wave. Relief and a call to my crew for assistance and we soon lengthened the painter to stop the problem.
With the rising wind we also had rising seas. Not realising that the dinghy, being lighter than the yacht, would get up on the plane and surf down the waves. On this occasion it had surfed down and overtaken the next wave to sit up proud and point her wet nose out and plant a “kiss” on my cheek.
Well so endeth my tales on dinghies, thank you for dropping by. More boating tales soon.
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