A Little Good, A Little Bad

After a couple of days of high winds, I was finally able to get back out on the loop. So, it was a pretty good day for travel, but not much of a day for other things. I was having my morning coffee when I decided to check my email and Facebook. Couldn’t do either. It seems my mouse died. Reboot, reset, swap batteries, nuthin’. I got to take my first Uber ride. Nice driver. Ten minutes to Walmart and ten minutes back. Quick test of the mouse and all is well. But, now it’s later than I wanted it to be. I wanted a bit of an earlier start.

I went to the dock master’s office to pay the bill. Wow, just wow. It was about twice what I expected. I’ve just about spent the month’s budget for docking fees in one place. Oh, well.

One of the dock workers offered to help me untie and shove off. The wind was still blowing me toward the dock. After two attempts, I got off the dock, but I sliced a two inch gash in my dinghy. Not sure if it’s going to be reparable. I’ve got a kit, but I think I might try to get professional advice.

I snubbed the dinghy up close to the stern of my boat and figured on towing it slowly. I pulled around the marina to the fuel docks and got a load of diesel and had the holding tank pumped out. Finally, back to moving again. I had plotted a course to Butler’s Cove.

It was a slow tow and the water was pretty rough. After so many days of high winds, I suspect that it will take a while to settle back down. Eventually, I got to Butler Cove. It was supposed to be a quiet sheltered cove. But, I’m bobbing around like a Champagne cork in a frat party swimming pool.

Anyway, I got the anchor out and it seems to be holding well. I decided to look at the dinghy. I thought that the gash was high enough on the tube that water wouldn’t be a problem. Wrong! I had a hell of a time pulling the dinghy on-board.  It took all my strength and about an hour of hard work to get in the boat. It was like wrestling a dead walrus. But, it’s on the boat until I can get it looked at. On the plus side, I can increase my speed a bit. I was planning on cruising for two days to get to Panama City. I may be able to make it in one shot.