We recently have made some great friends with another couple on our dock. They have quickly become a staple in our daily life and we all fell into sync seamlessly. They had a hard bottom, narrow dinghy that they didn’t much care for – they wanted an inflatable. We had an inflatable that we didn’t much care for. So we negotiated and basically traded.
Our new toy is a 1964 Mac Dinghy named Bloody Mary. She used to belong to the McCormick (like the spices) family and he taught all of his children and grandchildren to sail in this old girl. Her lines and age fit quite well with Marionette’s Revenge. Old, big girl, meet older, little girl.
While I was excited about this purchase, my enthusiasm paled in comparison to hubby’s. THIS has been a major milestone we have been looking forward to as a part of our liveaboard lifestyle. We have found along the way that the milestones and moments that really stick are a bit surprising. One big one for hubs was when we were getting ready to cast off from Puerto Rico last year. The fuel and water had been topped off, the laundry was all done, the customs forms and signatures were completed, the oil had been checked, and everything was secured on deck or down below. The last thing was to warm up the motor and get ice. Something about the act of wheeling the cart full of ice and schlepping it on board was a moment that will always be held fondly in his mind. We felt like real cruisers!
A pending milestone had been the dinghy. We bought the inflatable in the states and shipped it to St. Maarten for our trip home. The selection was purely practical with weight, shipping, ease of use, and cost. We had a small outboard motor (well, we thought we did) that came with the boat in St. Maarten, but the mechanic who was “fixing” it for us still has possession of it. Clearly he needed it more than we did.
‘Dinghy Adventures’ is a phrase that our friends on Sailing Kona use a lot. Aside from the more practical uses (laundry, groceries, etc.), dinghy’s can be beached (driven right up on the sand), and can get you into some tighter spaces, like mangroves and channels, which can be fun for exploring. They are also just easier to use – drop in water, attach motor, don’t run out of gas, and go. As opposed to moving all 40,000 lbs of Marionette’s Revenge, a worthwhile, but time consuming undertaking.
So we have the most adorable sailing dinghy. Hubs got a small, appropriately sized outboard – a little 2.5hp Mercury. On a random Monday in April, we finally did it! Had our first dinghy adventure. This was a back pocket afternoon.
Happy Hubby 
Downtown Tarpon 
Comfy cruising
Back pocket days or moments is a little phrase that hubs and I use to describe a really, really good day. You hang on to that day and when you are having a not so good moment, you proverbially pull it out of your back pocket and look at it to remind yourself of a happy time. What we both work really hard at acknowledging is fully appreciating those times in the moment. Cruising around in our little dinghy in the picturesque, postcard setting we call home definitely fit that criteria.
Sailing Marionette 