Oleta River State Park (Cont.#2)

Getting ready for a wet dinghy ride!  One of our sunnier days!  I went out yesterday and had a lesson on how to start our dinghy and how to drive it!  Ed and Bill needed to go to Northern Tool and Equipment store to buy a small generator for our power issues.  In order to do this I needed to drive them in the dinghy to a spot on the shore where we get off the dinghy to walk to the beach.  I managed to learn how to start the engine, and did get them safely to shore.  Now getting myself off the shore all by myself, was a different story.  After turning the wrong way and heading back to shore, turning the throttle to high instead of slow, and zooming off, luckily after turning back in the right direction, then hitting a rock and stalling the engine, I made it to deeper water.  Well, I decided while I was in the dinghy it would be a good idea to practice driving it!  Not too bad, unless you count zooming it again right in front of an oncoming boat, and almost ramming another boat, against me!  The fact that I kept my head about me and didn't panic when these things happened, I felt it was a good first time!  Then, after some minor improvement, it was time to get back on my boat!!!  It only took me 2 tries to idle down, go to the side of the boat, kill the engine and tie it up.  My first try looked pretty good until I hit that zooming throttle again and off I went!  So, back around I went and totally focused on pressing the off button on the engine, and very smoothly tied the dinghy up.   After several hours later the boys arrived with the new generator at the original drop off point.  I very successfully and, without a hitch, went and picked them up.  Ed took over the driving from me (wish I had a camera to show the look on his face as I was trying to launch the boat after dropping them off!) and I kind of understood why!  Practice makes perfect and I plan on going out again soon!  Anybody want a ride (at your own risk!!!)

Anybody who would like the details of Ed and Bill's adventures to get the generator go to Ed's blog at sv-dolce-vita@blogspot.com for the scoop!