The end of a friend...

The weather weasels were predicting the wind to come up today.  One in a row.

I went out for a paddle this morning, thinking I'd beat the wind.  I was wrong.  By the second lap, it had come up enough that forward progress was more work than fun.  On my way back, a young lady was fishing in the canal; she saw me coming and pulled her line out.  I said, "That's probably a good idea - it might be a lot of work reeling me in."

Her face lit up and she said, "Want me to try?"

"Umm... no."

Back at the house, we had breakfast on the deck.  Joan said, "Maybe you'd like to get the kayaks out today, if it isn't too windy?"

"Sounds like fun."

We haven't had the kayaks out since we've been back this time... I've been giving the paddleboard all the attention.

We hauled the kayaks onto the dock and shoved off...

Forward progress up the canal was a workout.  Joan visited with the neighbors that are moving into their new house (finally - it was supposed to be done in January)...

We went to the opening of our canal and headed east...

Over a couple canals, then turned north, with a nice push from the south wind...

Out into the Intracoastal, then back up another canal... into the wind...

No way around that since we got to enjoy the push earlier.  Finally, back to our canal, and home...

We hauled the kayaks up onto the dock so I could rinse them...

While getting the kayaks out, Joan asked what my intentions were with the old dinghy... "Well, I think there's still some life in it, if someone is willing to reglue the one side of the floor."  I thought maybe our neighbor could see if one of his employees wanted it.

"It is worn out - the glue won't hold."

"I did glue the one side last year - I think that is holding fine."

About 12 seconds later, Joan had the bottom of the dinghy completely separated from the tubes... "Sure glad I wasn't the one trying it out on the water."

I conceded - this was the end of the dinghy... it has lasted a lot longer than a guy trying to sell us a hypalon dinghy said it would.  The final act: painting over her registration numbers...

We salvaged any usable parts off her.  She was a good dinghy... long live the new dinghy!

The rest of the story: the dinghy didn't have a name until we bought Wild Blue (we had the dinghy for a couple years before getting the C-Dory).  My buddy Travis suggested we call the dinghy "Yonder"... get it?  Wild Blue and Yonder.  ;-)

A file photo with the dinghy on top of Wild Blue...