Adventures: watery

Yesterday was picture perfect so 3 of us set out to launch the newly repaired dinghy (13' motorboat). They call any little boat that belongs with a bigger boat a dinghy, no matter what the size of the dinghy. So off we go in the jeep (which needed a boost to start). After about a 10 minute drive we arrive in the middle of nowhere and back the trailer into the water. The outboard motor which had just been repaired (they don't like to be submerged in salt water apparently)started up with a little help from the portable booster cables. So now there is the dilemma - who gets the booster cables? Ponytail Richard in the jeep or Gerry in the boat? Gerry called it so the cables stayed with the boat. Richard waves goodbye, says good luck, I'll be home in 10 minutes when you call for help. So off we go through the canals out into the ocean. I had a psychic moment and thought that maybe we should make sure Richard gets away but I didn't say anything. We thump our way across the waves and I remember why I don't like motorboats - the thumping was giving me a headache. We finally get to the next canal system and things smooth out and the ride becomes comfortable, briefly. Unfortunately at one point we had to slow down to minimize our wake and of course the motor dies. Boosting does no good but we are prepared with a cell phone. We call Richard, no answer (he didn't have his phone with him as we thought), we call Betty, also no answer. We figure Richard will notice our absence after a while and come fetch us in his dinghy. We wait and wait, playing 20 Questions (I won). After about 45 minutes we hear a motor - it's Richard in his dinghy and the first thing he says is "I was waiting at the launch ramp for you to rescue me!" His emergency brake handle broke off, and while he was trying to fix that the engine started overheating so he shut it off. He finally got the brake unstuck, but didn't have it in gear and it rolled backward and he almost lost the trailer and jeep in the canal. We had the booster cables which did us no good so he couldn't start the jeep. So there we all are, waiting for the other for rescue. Fortunately someone came along to launch their boat and gave him a boost so he could rescue us. The photo is Richard in his dinghy pulling the other one.