THE GREAT ST FRANCIS DINGHY RESCUE

Have you ever had a piece of machinery with a particular idiosyncrasy that just drove you nuts? A lawnmower that only worked backwards perhaps? A car you could only start in third gear? I used to have a car that was allergic to rain, sleet and snow. Well, now we have a new outboard engine for our dinghy – not just new to us, but actually new and it won’t work at a slow pace. For example, when we are approaching the beach, a dock or returning to our boat, we have to continue cruising along at a regular clip and then throw the dinghy in reverse because we can’t slow down. The other evening we were returning from sundown at the ecolodge at Maho Bay in St. John and we were about to smash into Troubadour so Matt threw it into reverse, at which point the dinghy engine died and we were floating away from the boat rapidly. Thinking fast, Graham grabbed the dink painter, jumped out and swam to the boat linking us to safety. Our little hero.

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