Before I go much further into our trip, I forgot to introduce you to Serenity's new little sister.  We finally bought ourselves a dinghy to use with our fancy Steelhead davit.  It is not just any dinghy I might add.  Since he was a little boy, the captain has harbored a raging desire for a Boston Whaler.  Before making this purchase, we did what we rarely do much of - research!  We looked at all sorts of RIBS and other inflatables, even going so far as to talk with people who had both hard boats and inflatables.  We listened politely (though impatiently) to the pros and cons of both, all the while knowing we would buy a Whaler.  And buy a Whaler we did!  Went to the NY Boat Show at Javits Center in January (after having many conversations with our local Whaler dealer) and got ourselves a very good deal.  Though we bought the dinghy in January, had it delivered in May, it was only hoisted aboard several weeks ago.  Yes, technical difficulties and a too busy boat person.  Anyway, our Whaler is aboard.   At 11 ft., it is the smallest boat Whaler makes.  We did lose our heads and ordered it with a center console with an actual wheel, a bimini so we don't drop dead of sunstroke and all the cushions the boat comes with (those bench seats are awfully hard without cushions).

Cute, isn't she?

We've yet to use it I must confess.  It's a bit intimidating to work all the stuff, so we've "invited" several dock neighbors to our inaugural launching tomorrow.  Never mind none of them have a dinghy like this one, a crane or all the bells and whistles that come with this stuff.  They've been appropriately bribed with apres launch celebratory doings that involve much food and drink (upon arrival back at the dock of course).  According to NOAA, the weather appears that it will cooperate - calm seas and minimal wind.  Which also means we'll be roasting up on the flybridge while we get the dinghy out of its chocks, figure out how to attach the lifting cables to the davit, attach bow and stern lines to prevent the dinghy from wildly swinging and hitting Serenity (Lord, just the thought of that gives the captain palpitations)! and finally figuring out how to get the dinghy into the water.  Of course there will be much drama as we figure how to get into the dinghy once it's actually in the water.

Unless I get launched with the dinghy, the launch will be captured on video (assuming I press the right button on my iPhone).  If all else fails, you know I'll have an amusing re-cap of the event.  Wish us luck!