Monday, March 8, 2010

Sombrero Beach swimming...

The weather has turned perfect - 75 degrees, sunny, calm - just perfect.  We're starting to get boat projects done (sealing every deck intake, cap rail renew, water line cleaning, dinghy chock painting, lazarette cleaning, rudder packing adjustments, gel coat fixes/polishing/etc). There's also a tremendous amount of ActiveCaptain development, legal work, and writing as we start to roll out our upcoming Co-Op capability.  Much more will come out about that in the next few weeks. It's incredibly exciting!

None of this gets in the way of our 7:00 am dinghy ride to Sombrero Beach for some serious dog swimming. We go almost every morning. It's much nicer with the warmer weather although the water has always been a nice 70 - 73 degrees.

First up - Dylan retrieving by himself:


Next - Dyna by herself - take 1. She can be a bit stubborn:


Dyna, take 2:


And finally, the team together:

2 comments:

jschieff said...

Sounds like Marathon is a great place to stay.

The dogs are delightful, but how do you cope with salty and sandy paws and fur on the boat? Do you rinse them in fresh water when you bring them back on board after a beach outing? Do the dogs stay happily in the cockpit until they dry off?

Enjoy the blog very much.

MV Red Head said...

Good questions...

First, we go to the City Marina after the beach every day before going back to the boat. There they get a good rinsing off to remove the salt and sand. Although we don't sense any salt on the boat, the dinghy and outside of the boat has lots of sand. When we have good access to water, we'll rinse everything off. For now, it's just a sign that the dogs are happily swimming.

Next, when we get back to the boat, both dogs get dried with towels. Neither of them likes it much but they know they can't go inside until it happens.

When we return to the boat in the morning, they also know that it's breakfast time so they are mostly concerned about eating. We often feed them in the cockpit, outside, and they're usually dry enough when they're done eating.

Finally, after we've had breakfast, both dogs have to get ear drops or else they're prone to infections. We haven't had any trouble yet since leaving Maine even with all of the swimming.

It's a full day before we even get started in the morning!