. The first trip was not successful because we did not know how to say stopper (plug) in Spanish.
We returned another day and brought the stopper that we got at Mega in Puerto Vallarta with us. This time they knew what we were talking about and they had two different ones. We got one of each. The one that fit they had a bag of so on another trip to the hardware store we purchased two more.
Rowing to the beach
We beached the dinghy using the Achilles LSI-310E dinghy and
took a wood coffee stirrer and some paper towels with us which we used to dig
out the emergency goop and install the new stopper that fit YA!Now you may say no big deal for a stopper on the dinghy. Well if you had been in the bad weather we had at anchor and experienced the ordeal of having to bail out the dinghy and then remove it from the davits as Debbie did in the storm because of a lousy plug in the stern it would seem a much bigger deal. Something that simple can make cruising life a lot more difficult. There are lots of different situations that we run into that never happen at a marina.
We posted this while in Chamela but here is part of it to remind you of the problem we had.
Back in Chamela , we had to keep pumping out the dinghy that was on the davits because the plug I lost was filled with emergency goop to stop water from entering, also it stopped water from leaving. That meant it did not drain out the water. The rain water would start to slosh around in the dinghy making for a dangerous situation with the weight. We lowered the dinghy after deciding that we were going to catch cold and could not keep up the pumping all night. It was about every 45 min we needed to re-pump. Debbie then climbed into the dinghy (complete with her kayak life vest for safety!!) and let go of the davit blocks, careful not to get caught up in a big swell. She scrambled out of the dinghy using the stern steps and we let it hang off the stern.
Also if you take on a lot of water in the dinghy while leaving the beach in a heavy surf then to get it out you can remove the stopper while on plane and the water will drain out, You may want to bail also J but not if the plug has been sealed up.
To make matters worse this all could have been avoided it The Dinghy Doctor had installed the DaNard Dingy Wheels dingy wheels with some fore thought.
We moved the screw to the starboard side of the bracket.
The reason we discovered that the stopper fell into the sea is because the Dingy Doctor did not move the string that holds the stopper on when installing the wheels. The string went right across the dinghy wheel bracket once they (the brackets) were installed. All it took was removing the screw that holds the string to the stopper and moving it over to the other side of the dinghy wheel bracket. We did that and shortened the new red string a bit and it will never happen again. The dingy wheels fold down onto the bracket like scissors cutting the string after a few uses. Then by fumbling the stopper while removing it while the dingy was on the davits the stopper fell into the sea, sinking in murky water to be lost forever.
We also moved the stern lifting point where the dinghy is raised to the davits. We put the eyes that hold the lifting harness down by the bottom of the transom instead of at the top. It raises the dinghy much higher on the davits so the dinghy sits nicely higher over the stern anchor rode and for short sails of say two – three hours it would travel nicely even if the sea pick up some. For heavy seas it should be on the fore deck.
With lowered lifting points on stern, see how it clears the stern anchor rode.
This does make the dingy a
bit unstable when lifting it on the davits with the engine on it. The dingy
wants to tip one way or the other. To make it more stable we lengthened the
lifting harness so the lifting SS ring is in front of the engine. This gives
the dingy stability. Could be we will install two more SS lifting eyes back up
on the top side of the transom where they were for this but we only raise the
dinghy with the motor on it for security and then we lock it up each night. It
would be fine in a blow at anchor. 
While servicing the Honda 9.9outboard motor we had the cover off, I started fiddling with a sticker on it and found they come off easily. So guess what. Yep I removed them all! Now it is a lot less conspicuous and we think looks nicer without all the advertising.
It is kind of like when you get a car or truck and it has all the little writing on the back. Now who really cares if your car has a V8 or fuel injection or airbags or whatever other items they are advertising. For that matter who cares what brand your car is other than you? So off they came and it goes along with the idea of making your dinghy the less conspicuous of the bunch and it could get passed over by a thief.
We have only known of two people that have had dingy problems. Both were anchored off a major port city, Mazatlan and one scared them off, they were boarded by them as the dinghy was on the fore deck, the story we got first hand. The other lost it while it was up on a harness alongside the boat as the story goes, a panga pulled up under it and cut the harness free. Lift and Lock is definitely the way to go!!
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