I fought the pipe and...

... the pipe won.  (Sung to the tune of "I Fought the Law," by the Bobby Fuller 4, 1964)

We tried to get out on the boat today.  Didn't happen.  We made it over 3 of the 4 pipe crossings, but the wind had piped up.  As we tried to make our way over the 3rd pipe crossing, the wind would blow us back faster than any forward momentum.  A tough situation: you don't want to hit the pipe, so you slow down to try to push it down with a boat pole as you come up on it... then, give the motor a bit of forward, pull the motor up and shut it off.  Just a bit too much wind pushing us back down the canal.

Oh, we got across the 3rd one, but the wind put us sideways, straddling the pipe... well, that's fun.  Three more attempts after we got off the pipe, each one a bit worse than the previous.  I don't want to damage my boat or the prop - we knew when we were bested by Mother Nature.  And frankly, it didn't seem to be blowing that hard.  A pontoon without propulsion (when the motor is pulled up) is like a leaf blowing on the water.  OK, worse than a leaf, because there is a lot of side windage.

Now, we just have to cross the other two again to get back to our dock.

It isn't like we weren't prepared: besides the boat pole, we had two paddles (one that we always carry on the boat, and the SUP paddle) - neither were enough to move us forward against the wind.

The wind had turned us backwards as we crossed the last pipe.  Joan asked, "Can you just back to the dock?"

"Yeah, but I have more control and thrust in forward."  There is just enough room to rotate (back and fill) in front of our canal.  Back at the dock, the boat was none the worse... I'm guessing we'll both be sore for a while.