A Man's Gotta Do What A Man's Gotta Do

A sailing friend of mine told me that cruising is just learning to work on your boat in foreign countries. Come to think of it, he also told me to take the Patriots and give the points, so what does he know ?Anyway, this past weekend one long delayed project was put to rest.........pimping out Crabby.

Crabby is our dinghy. It might sound contrived to name a small rubber inflatable, but Crabby is our only connection to the outside world. That aside, we've dinghied in high wind, big waves, and some conditions which we probably shouldn't have ventured out in..........and Crabby has never let us down. In our mind, he deserves a name.

Now in the Caribbean, dinghy theft is an industry on a par with making bad Raggae demo CDs, so cruisers go to great lengths to protect their dinghy. Our strategy is a common one.............make Crabby so recognizable that he'd be difficult for a would-be thief to sell. Thus, this past weekend we busted out the red paint and adorned our beloved with a menacing Crab on his bow. Actually, it was a far less creative exercise than that..........Kirstin's artistic friend Andrea had done this a year ago and it peeled away in the Caribbean sun...........we just re-traced her work (Thanks, Andrea).

The Crab logo, along with our boat's name on the dinghy's sides probably insures that............our line will chafe in the night and Crabby will float away on his own.