Why you want a floating painter line

That's Russ in the dinghy

Since we returned from Naples we haven't left the dock at all. Palmetto is a cute little town, but we're getting antsy to hit the open waters! We hoped the electrical stuff would be done today, but they could only install 3 of the 6 solar panels we're adding. Most of our navigation systems are already up and running. We'll have a accurate depth gauge -- woo hoo!

Russ decided enough was enough; he needed to be on the water. So he lowered the dinghy and off he went. When he came back we loaded the dogs in and all of us went on a little ride on the Manatee River.

Our outing proved we are still a bit green. On our way back the motor (this would be the new propane one we just installed) stopped running. We were already back in the marina, just on a fairway. Russ turned the motor off then on. It would run in idle, but when he put it in gear it stalled. Then we discovered it would run in reverse, so we started down the fairway backwards. Eventually, it too petered out. We have a couple of oars in the tiny boat, so we paddled our way back to Cat-n-Dogs.

Once we got back to the boat we needed to tie ourselves to the big boat... and that's when I noticed that the bow line on the dinghy (called the painter line) was missing. In fact, it was wrapped around the propeller.

Yep, my bad. I didn't even pay attention to it.

After pawing through some other boater blogs with painter line mishaps, turns out we weren't the first to foul that line that way. Many blogs have the title "Why you want a floating painter line." So... there you go.

Guess what we'll be buying at West Marine this weekend.