The difference between a dinghy and a boat. And certain weight limitations.

This past weekend I was in Key Largo with some friends, and was taken to Hog Heaven for lunch. I hadn't been there in a while.. about 3 years actually --  as we started driving in is when I started thinking about this story...

It was mid summer, and again, D and I were taking one of our regular trips to key largo to go boating, drinking, pooling, relaxing...

After all the trips to the keys we have taken, you would think one of us would have bought a boat by now... but negative... every time we go, we rent a boat. It comes out pretty affordable, and we get to use it for at least 4 hours... so it's not a bad deal.


This particular weekend was a holiday weekend. All boats according to D were rented and booked, but he had a "hook up" and he had secured a lovely vessel for us for the day.

I'm excited. We pack a cooler full of beer, Smirnoff ice, and 2 subway subs. We will spend the day at the sandbar like we usually do, chit chatting and burning in the sun.

As we get to the marina, we walk outside by he boat slips, and I notice there are no boats in sight. I don't mention anything, because I am known to jump the gun. The guy renting the boat asks for 80.00.

WOW $80.00! That's great! I can't believe this guy is giving us a boat for 80.00 on a holiday weekend! David sure does have the hook up!

David hands the guy his credit card, and tells the guy we are going to the car to get the cooler. The guy puts a confused face and asks: Cooler?

yes, a cooler. with beer. and food.

The guy asks: How big is the cooler.

We respond: regular size.

We drag it to the marina so that the guy can see it.

The guy looks confused.


He points at a 6 foot dinghy and asks: Do you think that fits there? ("boat" looked like this)

I want to DIE.

Have you seen how big we are? We do not FIT on this "boat"!! Nor does the cooler.

We will not leave the cooler behind.

The cooler goes on the boat first.

we are left with no space.

We get on the boat carefully so that it does not POP or TIP OVER... we get on, and sit, with our LEGS
hanging off the sides! (not as comfortably as this couple shown here)

We decide we will take the boat out to the sandbar, but stay FAR FAR away from people so they cannot see us and our embarrassing dinghy. We clearly don;t fit on this thing! I can't believe the man even rented this thing to us! Aren't there certain weight limitations on this thing?

It takes us almost an hour to get to the sandbar. On a REGULAR boat, you can get there in 15 min!

-- We get there--- we anchor the raft with our plastic anchor. we are alone. Far away from society. Then, out of nowhere, a huge Sea Vee boat pulls up next to us. A man, his wife and 2 children jump off and start playing -- they strike up a conversation with us (of course). 

He tells us he's the OWNER of Sea Vee Boats (great). He asks where our boat is. Yes... because he clearly cannot fathom we came on a dinghy and that we both fit on the raft he's looking at.

We tell him our yacht is at the sandbar, but that we wanted some peace from the crazy party at the sandbar and took our dinghy out - away from  the people for peace. He believes us.

<<sigh>> The guy ended up being really nice, and we did our good deed -- his boat got stuck in the sand when the tide changed and we helped him push it out. he offered us a ride to our Yacht. We declined. We waited a good 20 minutes after they left, for us to leave back to the marina, in case he saw us in the open seas on our raft. 

Honestly, we could have rowed to the marina faster than the motor on this boat.

Ever since this day, I ALWAYS ask D to tell me the SIZE of the boat we are going on to NEVER experience this embarrassment again. It was horrible.