Walker Bay 10

Ben got a new dinghy... around here, inflatables don't withstand the test of time so he's been on the look-out for a hard dinghy. One fell into his lap yesterday when Mark dropped it off. I dig the green color scheme. If it was 8 feet long, I'd trade him for it!

Another Day on the Mooring Field

Yesterday, Ben met Joe & Brad out in the bay to help bring Pharaoh back to the ball.  Pharaoh and crew spent the last ten days at the cop dock, working to get her engine running.  Unfortunately, the cops shooed them away before they got the parts back from the machine shop, so she needed a tow back to the ball.  (Photo, right)

I spent last night at the hotel while Ben was working, so I was able to upload some of my HD videos onto YouTube.  Here are links to some of the Livingston videos that I didn't get to post the other day:

Livingston 1
Livingston 2
Livingston 3
Rollers
Home Stretch

Livingston

This post has been a long time coming.  Back in January, Ben bought a 10-foot Livingston boat from one of our neighbors.  The boat had been damaged during one of our winter storms so he had to re-fiberglass the bottom.  While Ben had plans to fix it up and get it back into the water ASAP, the rain had other plans so it took a few days and a few headaches before it was floating again.  Once the boat was back in the water, Ben spent the next few months tinkering with a Honda 10 hp engine that had also been swamped during a storm.  Working on engines over the water can be tricky because if you drop a part, it will most likely fall into the water... and you can pretty much forget about getting it back.  After a few lost parts and a few more headaches, Ben decided to get an already-working engine instead.  So he got a sweet deal on a Suzuki 9.9 hp engine and put it in place.  The Livingston was finally mobile!  A day or two later, the starter broke and Ben was up to his limit with headaches so he dropped the starter off at the shop to be fixed on solid ground.  Luckily, the engine can be started manually while the starter is at the shop.

Last week, Ben used the Livingston to tow Joe & Julie's 51 foot concrete sloop from the mooring field to the cop docks at Shelter Island.  Unfortunately, I was at school (actually, that was pretty fortunate for me because I'm pretty sure I would have had a panic attack if I had to be present for that maneuver!) so I didn't get any pictures or videos. 

Ben took the Livingston out to the ocean today, and I got a beautiful HD video of him taking off... I'd love to share it but unfortunately my new Verizon internet card sucks just about as bad as AT&T did (no, wait... it sucks MORE) so naturally it cut out about three quarters of the way through the upload to YouTube (and of course it took a good two hours for it to upload to that point) so I won't be able to share it today.  If I'm ever near a real internet connection, maybe I can get the video loaded and share it with everyone.  For now, we'll have to settle for still life.

My Blue Heaven

What you see here is the bottom of my dinghy with a fresh, slick coat of bottom paint. Ben surprised me when I got home from school yesterday... He'd hauled out Dinghy, cleaned her bottom, and painted her a lovely shade of blue. I wish I had a *Before* picture for comparison, but since I don't, I can tell you that Dinghy tends to get pretty bogged down with marine hitchhikers each month. Ben typically cleans her bottom about once a month (yes, I am a lucky gal!)... around the time when her slimy sea skirt hangs 6 to 8 inches beneath the surface of the water. As you can imagine, that extra growth is heavy, which makes for slower rowing.

With her new blue bottom, she glides through the water like a knife through butter. And since the slimy sea creatures won't be able to latch on as easily, she won't need to be cleaned as often. So... does anyone wanna race?? ;)

Decked Out Dinghy

You may remember Dinghy from a previous post. Well, Dinghy has undergone a makeover. Dinghy is now equipped with a solar light for Dinghy’s bow. (Go Green!) Plus a Sunsei 1.5 watt solar panel to charge Dinghy’s deep cycle battery that powers Dinghy’s 30 lb. thrust Minn Kota trolling motor which is controlled with a foot pedal. (Go Green, again!) A while back, I added padding and vinyl to Dinghy’s seats for added comfort. I keep Dinghy’s oars on board in case of an emergency, plus a chamois to dry the seats when necessary, and 2 life jackets stowed beneath the seat to avoid being harassed by the Harbor Police. Dinghy is finally COMPLETE! And the best part is Dinghy cruises in complete silence. Perfect for sneak attacks. ;)

Dinghy: BEFORE

Dinghy: AFTER

$4 Solar Light courtesy of Home Depot

Sunsei Solar Panel

Deep Cycle Battery

Minn Kota Trolling Motor

Foot Pedal

Bringing New Meaning To The Word DINGHY

OK. So we were coming down the dock after a walk with Lola and some people were looking across the bay with binoculars. They said they could see the whale, just beyond the mooring field. (I should mention we walked Lola to Happy Hour... we like to kill two birds with one stone, as they say.) So we bravely decided to dinghy out and see for ourselves. Our mission was a success. This was my first "up-close" experience with a whale, so I wasn't sure I believed Ben when he said the whale wouldn't surface beneath our boat and capsize us. (As it turns out, he was correct. Whales are apparently very aware of their surroundings and don't bump into boats. Boats bump into them. But I am a hard sell when it comes to giant sea creatures swimming in the vast world beneath me.)

So here they are: pictures and a short video of the whale... S/he surfaced within about 10 feet of our dinghy. I was never quick enough to catch the spray. Just some shots of her/him coming up and going back under. I only wish I could have paid the Coast Guard helicopter to get some aerial shots of the two fools whale watching from their 8-foot dinghy. (Keep in mind the whale is about 30 feet long.)

(Note: For those of you lacking imagination, the whale is depicted by a black hump above the water or a blurry spot on the water's surface.)

TGIF (but Saturday would be better)

I'd like to whine about the 5 days I spent on the boat alone, but I'll spare you. Instead, I'll just say I rowed just under a mile each day. I lost about 4 pounds. And I cried for the first time in *oh-I-don't-know* a year. It's been a rough week.

On a positive note, I was able to snap some shots of these pelicans as they cruised by the boat. Interestingly, they appear more colorful through the lens than the naked eye. They are very timid and quite camera-shy. In the first photo, you can see his wings raised as he gets ready to fly off. The second photo, their backs are toward me. They see me and are attempting to duck and run. (HeHe). The pelican in the last photo is giving me evil eye. (I know it when I see it).

Row My Boat

This picture is a few months old. That's me, pumping the water out of my dinghy after a rainy night. (Thank goodness for rubber boots!)

This week, Ben is up north attending a work conference. It's just me and Lo on the boat. Absence makes the heart grow fonder, that's true. But it seems to also make my muscles grow stronger. I never realized before how many times I have to row back and forth to shore. I suppose that's partly because when Ben is here, he shares the duty of taking Lola to shore for potty breaks. But in addition to that, Ben often rows all three of us when we are together (and we're almost always together). I guess I never realized til now just how much rowing Ben actually does! *Thanks, Ben!*

A friend told me that she didn't think she could row that much. But I think she could. I think anyone could if they didn't have a choice. If I don't row, I am stuck on the boat 24/7 and that would be even harder than rowing. Even after 8 months living on the boat, there are times when I just NEED to be on solid ground.

The hardest part for me is rowing against a strong current. I must look pretty silly to the people on land, as I struggle to row against the current, each stroke appearing to take me just a little bit further from my destination. As I move at a snail's pace, I can't help but imagine how handsome my back and upper arms must look after months of rowing! ;) And eventually I get where I'm going.


Ben has an inflatable dinghy with a motor. You might be wondering why I don't retire the oars and use the motor. There are a few reasons for that:
A) I don't know how to use it.
B) It has some quirks that I'd rather not deal with.
C) With mechanical things, there is always that worry that it will break. With rowing, there is never that worry. (Except that time when those crappy oars broke while Ben was rowing, but I've since purchased some nice solid ones!)
D) Rowing is Zen-like. It forces me to slow down and reflect.

Have you ever seen a person in a wheelchair cruising around like it's nobody's business? As if the wheelchair is an extension of their body? I'm beginning to feel the same way about rowing. It's as if the oars are extensions of my arms. It's fun to turn on a dime and slide sideways right up to the dock. I haven't perfected my skills, but I'm a work in progress.

Dinghy

This Dinghy is our ride. Just as you have a car, we have a Dinghy. Without this Dinghy, we're either stuck on the boat or on the Hard. As I described in my last blog, there are different docks we can lock our Dinghy to. Because we have to row everywhere, we tend to use the two docks closest to our boat.


Here is a picture of the main dock:



The other day we docked Dinghy and went ashore for a walk. We usually lock Dinghy on the side of the dock closest to our boat. As we were returning from our walk, I recognized Dinghy on the wrong side of the dock and panicked. Dinghy must have come unlocked and started drifting! We ran down to catch Dinghy before it was too late. As it turned out, Dinghy had been tied up to the dock by a friendly neighbor. Somehow our lock had failed and Dinghy was on the loose, drifting across the bay! One generous resident of our community saw Dinghy on the move, rowed over, lassoed her and reined her back up to the dock. We owe a special Thank You to Jim for saving Dinghy. And a special 'F' You to Master Lock for the $#!%%iest piece of crap we've ever purchased.