Dunkin' Dinghy

Eydie Scher wrote this blog of her sea-faring adventures. If you’d like to write about any voyages of your own send it to me at klarsen@rgj.com and I’ll post here. Thanks Eydie.

Dunkin' Dinghy. That's what I named our very first boat. No, it wasn't a dinghy. Why did I do it? My husband called me from the Sea Ray dealer to say he bought a boat. It needed a name right away. Sight unseen, I pictured a dinghy and the alliteration was painted brightly on the stern.

Fast forward to Tahoe and three boats later. It's déjà vu. We are on our 3rd dinghy of the summer and fall. #1 was an inflatable raft that sunk. #2 was a freebie my husband picked up along route 89. What a bargain! Was she seaworthy? The 1st time out, we reached our boat and buoy. Returning from a beautiful day trip to Emerald Bay in July, we couldn't spot our dinghy. That's because it was _ submerged in the Lake, not due to swamping, but it had a leak.

Lightning flashed across our bow. Clouds spoke ominously of thundershowers. How would we get back to shore and do it in a hurry? Swimming was out. Everyone knows you absolutely do not swim during a thunderstorm. The dinghy was still our only hope.

He gave me a scoop. I bailed and he covered the boat. Yes, I found the leak. I bailed it out and the water rapidly returned. We got in and paddled to shore as fast as we could. Whew, we made it. We got what we paid for and more, an old leaky dinghy beyond repair.

Okay, now we're ready for dinghy #3. On the bulletin board at Sierra Boat company in Carnelian Bay, someone was selling, and I repeat the word selling, not giving away, a dinghy in almost new condition. The deal was struck. It was perfect. Oars even came with it, not paddles.

This one was totally seaworthy and served us well for the rest of the summer. What's the connection to Dunkin' Dinghy? We want to paint that name on this dinghy when we haul it home.

There's a minor problem. On one of those unbelievable windy days, when boats get swamped, September 22nd, our son's birthday, to be exact, #3 got swamped. Sailboats and powerboats lay on shore ripped from buoys. Still this was a surprise. Fortunately #3 was swamped on land. We donned appropriate apparel and boots. What to do? You guessed it. I used the trusty scoop over and over and over again. Then we turned it over. At least the water cleaned it up a bit. This time we left #3 upside down. We still need it as a tender.




Our boat, Poetry in Motion bounces around next to its buoy on an ever increasingly lonely slice of Hurricane Bay. It will come out before it snows but who knows what more can happen. We have been tested by Tahoe and are up to any challenge it can throw at us.

The name will stick. Dunkin' Dinghy will sit the winter out side by side with our boat on land. At least it is NOT leaking. Dinghy #3 is in a class by itself!