Breakfast was yogurt, homemade granola, and sausage. A light breakfast as we plan to head out on the big expedition today. We need to go find a gas station to refill the gas for the dingy engine and generator. And we plan to visit Sand-dollar bay. Its not actually called this. It’s a nickname we gave it 20 years ago when we passed through. It’s a small bay with thousands of sand dollars littering the bottom. We want to go back and visit to see if the sand dollars are still there.
After breakfast the guys get the 20 HP motor off the rail and onto the dingy. Its too heavy to carry up and down, so we move it up and down with the boom.
Meanwhile, Melissa and Margaret packed a picnic of veggies and dip, salamis, and white wine. Then we all pile in the dingy for the 20 minute high speed journey to sand dollar bay. Alas. It seems that (ahem, cough) that some of us might be a pound or two heavier than the last time we all piled in the dingy for a high speed ride. We can’t get the dingy up on plane. And it will take hours if we can’t get up to speed. We all lean forward. No luck. We shift positions again getting even further forward. The bow dips down and cold ocean water pours into the dingy. Melissa yells, “we’re sinking!” and Dave pulls back the power. Hmm. Well. That didn’t work so well. New plan is clearly needed. We turn around and head back to the marina. We agree that the guys will make the run for gas while Melissa and Margaret hang out on Apsaras. Then maybe later we have the guys make a high speed run for the burgers from Lake Bay Marina. Melissa comments, “its like Marla says, you gotta remember the ‘F’ word. Flexibility.”
After the guys get back with the gas, we debate what to do. The burgers just won’t be the same unless we are sitting at the picnic tables on the dock at Lake Bay. Well, Melissa comments, we paid for two nights here at Longbranch Marina, but that’s sunk money. If we think it will be more fun to go anchor near Lake Bay, then we should go.
So we head out for Mayo Cove. We caught a mooring buoy. Jim got a lesson in how to approach the buoy so that Melissa could snag it from the bow. Last trip we heard a lot of thumping from the mooring buoys – not uncommon in relatively calm conditions. In the wind the boat is blown away from the buoy. But in the calm the boat tends to bonk its bow on the buoy and can keep people awake at night. Dave had spotted a cool “anti noise” device – basically a rubber bumper that you rig on the bow that keeps the noise down. Here are the guys rigging the bumper up front for the first time from the dingy.
After that we headed up the river to explore and then grabbed greasy burgers at Lake Bay for dinner along with a bottle of red wine. Perfect boat food! The marina is a happen place. Ski boats and jet skis from all over come for the burgers. It’s a week night and its still hopping. One of the boaters brings out his guitar and gives us a concert with our dinner.
Movie night was Kindergarten Cop. Always a good one.