Dinghys are things you need to get from your monohull sailboat to the secluded beach or shore. Keelboats need 4 to 6 feet of water draft so its not like you can sail right up to the shore. Dinghys are important ferries from boat to shore unless you dock at a marina dock all the time. I bought an inflatable dingy in 2016 right after I bought Serenity. I chose an inflatable because of limited space on a 30 foot yacht. With an inflatable, I can deflate and roll it up when not in use. It only cost $600 at a time I was spending my disability backpay made it seem economical at the time. Unfortunately, inflatables develop leaks and mine has slow leaks I simply can not find. This makes for scary rides as you wonder will this thing hold air while I got it loaded with things I dont want getting wet. Inflatables only last about 3 years before you get tired of leaks and trash it. This one is 3 years old this year.
So dingy shopping is yet another item on my shopping list before I go on my wild journey. It will have to wait until until 2021 when I get a bit more money in my monthly budget. So that is where I am at: needing a trouble-free dingy. So funny this week when I took my dingy out to exercise my gimpy shoulder by rowing it out of the marina. The front chamber leaked I knew but when I got out in the bay I noticed the back half was leaking too. I wanted to row more but I could only row back toward the boat and pull it out of the water.
I injured my shoulder somehow back in June so I have not been able to do much. My shoulder was wrecked in an automobile accident I was in 1988. Now it bothers me when the slightest fall can pull the ligaments apart making it hurt just like it did after that near fatal accident long ago. Even playing guitar hurts when I make an E major chord. I still practise and I took some video. Eventually I will get enough to play the whole Sailing Serenity song all the way through. But the sore shoulder and depression are getting the best of me this month. Sorry I have not posted in a while.
Options for my next dinghy are $150 used wooden pram at 8 feet. I’m not sure if that is going to be light enough for me to lift out of the water by myself. Second option is a new polyethylene dinghy which is going for about $500 at West Marine. I would have to wait until next year to have the buying power to make that sort of purchase. This dingy is over 9 feet and over 100 pounds. Not sure if I can lift that on a bad day with all my aches and pains. There are more things to think about when you are disabled. I will have to rig some way to crank pulley to recover such a craft. And where to store it on my boat securely? This is why I started with an inflatable. Inflatables are light and convenient to store away. They just are not durable enough.