Bill, KI4MMZ, and Roger, W2ZDB, came by yesterday and took me to Home Depot to pickup a couple of 9' 1x2 red oak strips to fix the gunwales on my dinghy. It was great to finally meet them. They are both vets, and Bill is a fellow net controller for the Maritime net. Roger is a fellow cruise who checks in often and has singlehanded up and down the east coast and Central America.

Bill invited me to come stay at his home through Christmas, but I wasn't comfortable leaving the boat unattended that long, so I'll probably just visit them on Christmas day. I don't think there would have been a problem, but without an automatic bilge pump, and even with one, I worry about taking on water. I've only noticed her leaking when the engine's running, but you never know.

I spoke to Roger about it, and boats in general, and he gave me some good advice. The best of which was that it's easy for others to be cavalier about the boat, but for he and I, our boats represent our total net worth, and we can't afford to be cavalier. So, I came back to the boat. I actually prefer being on the boat, but Zoe likes going ashore and meeting people, so I need to balance things.

I had to inflate the dinghy to go aside, so we'll use it to go for a swim today. I'd planned to check the bottom when I got here, but the water was a bit cold, so I put it off and spent most of the time reading instead. Zoe needs a bath anyway -- guess it wouldn't hurt me either.

Dinghy watch:

I forgot to pickup additional fasteners for the gunwales when I was at HD -- didn't want to make them wait for me too long, so I rushed in and out. I think I might have enough on board, but will need to organize everything first. In any case, it'll take a while to bend the new pieces, so I couldn't put it together yet anyway.

Also, the plugs I picked up weren't the right size, so I still have to keep using the wooden plug. I actually picked up both the 3/8" and 1/2" just in case, but the 3/8 was too small and the 1/2 was too big.

I'm going to remove the forward seat today and fix it while I start bending the new gunwales. The mast is stepped through the forward seat, so it's pretty important to get it solid. Unfortunately, the dinghy maker didn't have the sail in stock, so once I get the step and gunwales fixed, I may try to bend on one of my smaller jibs for the time being. I'm anxious to see how she sails.