Dinghy Cruising I

[Tony]

Here's phase one of my weekend adventure:

I'm eagerly awaiting the chance to go pickup our new-to-us Catalina 22 in a couple weeks. In the meantime, I found myself overly eager to get out on the water, so I dragged my old dinghy out, finished glassing in the new transom that I started two years ago (it only took about 2 hours to finish, plus curing time), bought an electric motor and loaded up the truck.

(To interject, sorry, I'm not brave enough to take my digital camera out on the dingy just yet, so use your imagination)



Monday, I took my dinghy up to the large ramp in Portland, OR on the Columbia near the airport. Pulled all the gear out of my 10' Columbia dinghy, gave it a push off the back of my little toyota truck and-promptly deposited two gallons of water that ran in over the bow as it landed. Oops.

Ok, it's not that much water, and it ran into the bilge. Whatever, it's 2pm and I'm itchin' to get on the water. Installed the Minn Kota electric on the stern, dropped two older car batteries (stay tuned...) that I had handy and charged in the stern, dropped in my bag-o-goodies, check that the oars were indeed fastened in their chocks, verified there was indeed a dinghy anchor attached to my new rode and hopped in.

In the meantime, three other boats have launched. Did I mention I'm real efficient on this whole setup thing? One the boats was a large, black special forces looking RIB with a Big Ol' Outboard. I'm thinking, hey, that's kinda cool. Then I look up at the two guys who're standing by the open doors of their privately owned pickup and pulling on what looked like some kind of lite version of a camo survival suit. Backpacks well packed with gear go into black rubber sleeves, launch is VERY coordinated. The whole thing really does scream of SEAL's...Jokingly, I ask one of the guys "So, you hunting birds, or people?" He looks at me, very seriously, then says "Neither," and goes back to launching. Who knows what these guys were up to, but it wasn't just fishing...

Back to the cruising. I untie the docklines, kick the moter up to it's highest setting and buzz out of the launch area, emerging into the main channel of the Columbia in my 10' plastic dinghy with ~14" of clearance to the gunnels. No problems so far.

Heading downstream, I try out the different motor settings and settle on 3 to stetch my batteries. For exercise, I break out the oars and row part of the way. About half a mile downstream is an island. One side is the main channel, the other is the harbor. Heading into the harbor, I spend some time exploring various marinas, ooohing and aaahing at various boats. My wife calls, says she's in town and will meet me for lunch at a floating cafe we like at our old marina. She'll be a while so, I continue downstream past the cafe to explore some more.

Uh oh. I'm rowing around, checking things out, admiring the Osprey chicks and enjoying the day. It's time to head back to the cafe to meet my wife. Turning into the current, I bring the motor up to it's highest setting to make some speed and, a hundred yards in, the motor slows waaayyy down. Huh, guess what everyone says about using deep cycle batteries is true. Car batteries suck. Good news, the wind is at my back. Running with the moter on it's lowest setting to help things along, I break out the oars and make my way to the cafe, probably a quarter mile. Woohoo! The sign at the dock (the NEW sign, I might add) says: "No Dinghies." My wife asks if I can park there anyway, hey no problem. In fact, come around the side here, you'll fit perfectly. Great, I'm hungry!

Some fish and chips and an hour of conversation later, then it's off to Sexton's Chandlery for a new battery. While I there, I pick up some new bronze oar sockets to replace the plastic falling apart ones on the boat. Back to the marina, a quick battery change (the old ones go home with my wife) and I'm back on the river again. Wow! This deep cycle battery gives me another 30-40% of thrust. Guess those old car batteries really did suck, huh?

Heading upstream, I anchor out off of the wilderness end of the island, read a while and drink a couple Reeds gingerale, then it's out in to the main channel. The wind has been kicking up for the evening breeze, but my little dinghy does great. The bow has a scoop underneath, so as long as weight is distributed to the rear, it'll ride up over some impressive chop without picking up any water. I'm out in the middle of the Columbia when the local regatta fires up. Someone in China must have hit that switch that doesn't seem to do anything, because in the space of 5 minutes I go from being the only boat on the river to being in the middle of probably twenty Melges 24's, Hunter 22's, San Juan 21's as well as a number of random older cruising styles in the 30-40 foot range. This is the racing fleet. In addition, there's a few folks in cruising boats just heading upstream in the midst of this.

I had great fun dodging and admiring over the next hour, had a real nice phone conversation with my dad while the dinghy drove itself upstream once I got out of the regatta area, then headed in.

Repairing the dinghy: ~$60 in West System epoxy and cloth.
Buying motor, new battery, oar sockets, anchor, etch: ~$250.
Experiencing "true" cruising - (Fixing your boat in new and interesting places) - Priceless!

(Actually, it was a great outing. low 70's, cloudy skies so very little sunburn and great views of the river and a bunch of other boats.)

[Tony]

And now, we return to our intrepid adventurer:

It's tuesday, and I've got the rest of the day off. Before leaving, I install the new oar sockets. I head down to Brown's Landing, roughly a quarter of the way down Multnomah Channel. I launch the boat. Same deal as before, but without the two gallons of water and the other boats.



Heading into the channel, I take my time, oogling the boats in the marinas along the way. There's lots of wildlife to look at, and as you get farther down, smell (mmmmm...dairies...). I stop to chat with a couple of guys having sundowners in the back deck of their bayliner. Half an hour later, it's back to cruising. Hey! The sun's out! Wahooo!!! Oh wait-I forgot to put on sunblock...yep, that's the start of a burn. Oh well. I break out the sunblock, put it on and it's back down the channel. A mile down, this big Nordhaven Trawler comes barrelling around a blind corner about a thousand yards downstream, heading my way. Turning in to the shore, I crank the dinghy to it's highest speed and make some distance. It's obvious this idiot can't read all the NO WAKE bouys all along this stretch of river. He goes by, then it's bow-in to the LARGE wake that's headed my way. I make it through the first five breaking waves (would have been great on a bellyboard...) but take part of the last over my bow. Well, I guess it wouldn't be an outing without a gallon or two on the bilge.

Okay. It's back on the road again. This part of the channel is mostly wild, with just a few floating houses and isolated small marinas. A couple hours later, I've seen lots of wildlife, had the snot scared out of me when a salmon leapt out of the water a foot behind me and checked out an ultra-light with floats for landing gear on someone's dock. Gee, looking at the chart before I left, it didn't seem like St. Helens was this far, I've got to be close, right?

Around the corner, I find Collins Marine Park, an island that's got some public docks and restrooms with a nice set of trails through the trees. I stop, stretch my legs and use the head. After chatting with a guy and his two dogs, then a lady on a Fantasia 32 from Alaska, it's back on the water. Off to the south I can see several aircraft practicing for tomorrow's airshow! Let's see, theres a biplane skywriting, another doing tricks, a couple of WWII bombers flying in formation, two F-15's and I can hear the roar of the Blue Angel's F/A-18's faintly off in the distance. Cool, and I didn't even have to pay admission!

My wife is supposed to pick me up in St. Helens at 7. She calls. "Where are you?" My reply: "Well...Not sure, really, but I can't be that far..." (Sure wish my GPS hadn't started acting up.)

Another hour later, the motor just doesn't seem to be getting me anywhere...is it even running? Yup, but uh oh, the batteries seems weaker. Why? It should last a lot longer than that, shouldn't it? Well, time to row to help it along. An hour later, I've stopped the motor and stopped rowing and am floating...upriver. Ahh, the tide. And the wind. Crap.



Long story short, I rowed from 1900 until 01:30 when I finally struggled past the breakwater and into the St. Helens city marina, where I left the boat in a slip at the ramp. SOG was probably in the shuffle speeds, ie: 1-1.5 kts. Except for the first hour, I rowed painfully slowly into the incoming tide and a freshening wind. Fortunately, and I thank God for this, the water was actually pretty smooth, aside from some isolated spots, so there weren't a lot of speed robbing waves to crash into, just some long swells from the wind. There's a long fetch (probably 15 miles) when you get out into the main channel in St. Helens. Also, I didn't see any shipping at alll in the channel. Interestingly, a few minutes after I docked, we looked out and saw a river tug pushing 6 barges up the same channel. That could have been close.

Good think I put in those new bronze oar sockets. The old ones would have self-destructed the second hour.

Today, I'm sore, tired from only getting 3 hours sleep and am at work-but still really enjoyed the weekend. Won't be making that trip without a second battery though :-) All in all, I have to say I'm quite impressed with the little electric motor. It really makes the dinghy scoot under a full charge, and I can get 3-4 hours at full speed with a group 27 deep cycle, considerably longer at slower speeds. I can't spend much more on the dinghy, since we're getting our C-22, but I'll be getting a small solar panel to supplement. All in all, I'm liking dinghy cruising. Still working on that whole preparation thing, but that's what I get for being in a hurry, I suppose.

Edit on 7/10: I went down to the marina last night after I picked up my truck at Browns landing. Hopping back in to the dighy and rowing to the ramp, I find the river a different beast entirely! The tide was moving, but only at maybe a 10th of the power of the day before. I've learned my lesson: Never go boating without checking the tides first. When I learned to sail it was on inland waters and I never had to think about tides. Oh well, live, learn... -TO