We’re not getting a new dinghy for True North… we stole our old one off of Peregrine! Seeing as it was nearly new and we love it, we figured we might as well!  The one that came with True North was pretty terrible.  The pictures make it not look that bad.  The previous owner installed a seat at the bow and just drilled right through the fiberglass with screws and no sealant.  He also installed a cooler as a seat (with bolts, thank goodness!) but because of all the added weight and holes, the hull has some cracks in it.  I’m assuming it leaked a bit because the inside of the floor is sealed with some sort of goo all over it.  In addition to all of the above, the inflatable part has frayed edges all over.  The only upside was the nice new 15hp Yamaha.  I got that all sold and off the boat so we could go get our real dinghy!

Our outboard engine was pretty much the only thing in our storage shed still, so getting that to the boat meant we could empty out our shed and not have to pay for that anymore!

When we put Peregrine up for sale we took the dinghy and left it up on a trailer at our friend Caroline’s house.  It’s sat there for months now and was looking a little worse for wear with bird poop, moss, and dirt on it but it’ll clean up!

We lowered the dinghy back down to a reasonable level and set dad to work cleaning it up.  He was down there pleasantly entertained for hours with a scrub brush and magic eraser and managed to get all the grime and stains off and even waxed the motor! Now the boat has some transom bling and we’re ready to go cruising!

Now I can put the fuel tank back in place and get a lot of the “dinghy stuff” like the little anchor etc and put them where they belong instead of randomly throughout the rest of the boat! It’s starting to come together now!