She was a fast machine.

When we first started outfitting our dinghy, we bought an electric motor, mostly because it was so quiet and zero stinky. When we got our proper dinghy, we were amped to take her on adventures with the electric motor. Well, then we went to Catalina and motored around the harbor. The electric motor meant we had to haul a battery into the boat, connect it to the motor, keep everything dry so we don't die, and remember to disconnect the battery so we aren't left stranded. It also went about as fast as a drunk snail. We are not responsible or patient enough for an electric motor. 

​For Valentine's Day, Capt. Mack decided to show his affection by buying his one true love a powerful new Tohatsu motor. And me, the person he married, I got to make the DMV appointment to register the dinghy now that she has a motor tag. I should've been a boat.

In addition to the motor, he also got his girlfriend a tiller extension. And then he went on numerous dinghy rides out in the harbor trying to make it ride on a plane. I got left at the dock because "it works better with just one person." This, ladies, is what getting phased out looks like.

Despite the rejection, I like this motor a lot actually. It's not too heavy for me to manage, although I still don't like to take it off the motor mount and put it on the dinghy without a just-in-case line attached. It has a little shifter from reverse to neutral to forward, which I like because there is something defective in my brain that can't remember which was speeds up and which was slows down, and it those motions were gears, my screw ups would be painfully obvious. It starts with one or two pulls. And it seems powerful enough to get us where we want to go. 

The motor mount we had was a little small for the new Tohatsu, but with a little re-engineering we made it work. We had to recede the screws so that the clamps could be tightened down and change the angle of the holes to make it wrap around the stainless rail better. 

A motor isn't exactly the  most romantic gesture, but at least when he comes home from his solo rides in the dinghy, he brings back beer.