A Little Dinghy

I don't know what it is about our crew, but we can never seem to get an early start. We set our alarm for 7:30, but we still didn't get on the road until 11:00. We went back to Windmill Marina in Afton, wanting to check out their facilities a little more. We rigged the boat in about 30 minutes, which is what we aim for, then went inside to get sodas before launching. The actual launching was unexciting (which is good), and we motored away from the marina.

We decided that we were hungry for lunch, it having been four hours since breakfast, so we cruised over to the Wisconsin side of the river in search of a beach. All we found was private property, so we turned for the Minnesota side. Alas, more private property. The only public beach was posted for No Watercraft, so we anchored just out of the posted swim area and ate in the cockpit. The week before, Julie found a 2-person inflatable dinghy at Wal-Mart for $15, including a foot pump, and snapped it up. We had launched with it lashed to the foredeck. Right after anchoring, I launched it and tied its painter to a stern cleat. With lunch finished, the kids were clamoring for a swim and a dinghy ride.

They splashed around in the water for a bit, then boarded the dinghy. We weighed anchor and motored into the wind. The mainsail did not go up cleanly; I had misrouted the lazy jack line, twisting it around a reefing line. Once the lines were unfouled, we pulled out the jib and sailed along in about 8-10 mph of wind. The kids were having fun back in their own little boat, but after a while started to bug each other. We brought them back on board and sailed a bit more. All of a sudden, the wind dropped.

For the next twenty minutes, we had variable wind that would tease us just before dropping away altogether before teasing us again with a few decent puffs. After we tired of this, we dropped the sails and the kids climbed back in the dinghy. Julie steered us back to the marina while I took the boom down and stowed it in the cabin. The kids had a fun ride, with several big powerboat wakes to lift them up, then drop them into a trough. At the ramp, we recovered cleanly and got her ready for the road in pretty good time. The dinghy was a smash, and we had some decent wind, though we would have liked more. Next time.

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