Equipment

As much as I disagree with Donald Rumsfeld I do like one of his sayings, “you go to war with the army that you have not the one that you wish for”. Cruising is a lot like his statement. For exampal, our dinghy and outboard fit that description perfectly. Our dinghy leaks, is too small, has over 1 dozen patches on it and it’s over 20 years old. The outboard situation though, is even worse. It’s a ‘cruise & carry’ “The 12 lbs wonder!” (as the advertisement for it proclaimed). This 1.5 HP outboard, (seemingly a converted chainsaw motor) has been my friend and nemesis for the last 15 years. It's about 20+ years old now and consistently dies on me but I manage to resurrect it from the grave every time. If we had a choice we would have a 4 stroke 8 HP beast that is quiet and reliable and a roomier RIB dinghy. The reality of cruising is quite and bit different, for like Rumsfeld said (just paraphrased a bit), “you go cruising with the equipment that you have not always what you want”.