We originally thought that we could row ourselves anywhere we needed to go, even after we added the Livingston to the boat. And this worked okay for about a year.
Then one day while rowing to shore at one of the islands in the San Juan's (Patos) we got caught in the ebbing current that was flowing out through a passage in the bay we were in. Not a super strong current, but strong enough that hard rowing was barely enough to hold position.
It was not a dangerous situation- if we had been swept out the short pass we could have rowed around to the main entrance or gone ashore to wait for the current to change. As it was I was able to row out of it but was pretty exhausted by the time I did so. And this was some 13 years ago-- I haven't been getting younger or stronger since then.
But that evening back on the boat it got us thinking that if we were ever in a situation where getting somewhere against a current, which around here can easily be three, four, even five knots in the open bodies of water, and much higher in the narrow passes and channels, and it was really important that we be able to get to where we wanted to go, we'd be screwed if rowing or even some little lightweight outboard motor was our only motive power.
So we went out and bought a 4-horse, 4-cycle Yamaha for the Livingston. It has served us very well the last 12 or 13 years. We would have gotten a more powerful motor like six or eight horsepower but we wanted to keep the weight down as low as possible.
When we are able to make longer and more far-ranging trips we'll get a 10' Bullfrog and 15 hp motor. This is practical to make runs from an anchorage several miles to a town or harbor at a decent rate of speed even in choppy water where our low powered, low freeboard Livingston is not.
But regardless of how one uses their dinghy, having the ability to get somewhere against whatever kinds of currents one thinks they might encounter is very important, I think.
