A New Dinghy!

The big news today was the arrival of our new Highfield Dinghy (made in Australia) – and a beautiful boat she is! She’ll be named “Small Change” (like our last dinghy) – and have a place of honor on the davits on the stern of Sea Change.

Launching Small Change was a bit of a challenge – we’re on a concrete dock, with a distance of about 10 feet to the river water below. “Just throw her in”, taunted the fellows observing her arrival on shore. Yeah right … no one was throwing this expensive little boat anywhere, as far as we were concerned.

So my captain rigged up an interesting launch system with four lines, each held by a near-by volunteer – and we just gently lowered the boat into the water (see pics below). Then we carefully walked the dinghy with a line in the water alongside the dock, until we reached the big boat and could safely tie her up. Mission accomplished! Can’t wait to take the dinghy for her first spin tomorrow – hope the motor starts J.