One of my favorite items on our boat is our dodger. When we went to look at our boat for the first time in Canada I saw a hard top dodger on another newly delivered boat and fell in love. Suddenly I had to have one on our boat. I think Sam was happy I was taking such an interest and would have agreed to about anything that would make me want to spend more time on the boat.
I went on this other boat to check it out and realized a canvas dodger would no longer cut it especially once I saw the lights built right in. Unfortunately it was about 5 months later before I would actually have it installed on my boat and about a year before I would actually use it since our boat was in the yard.
Since I am a bit vertically challenged (okay short) I have never really had to duck under things much in my life. Because of this the dodger had to be tall enough I could walk under it without ducking. This made the process of ordering it a bit more challenging and we were questioned about it being too tall but I was firm (read stubborn here) and wouldn't change my mind. After all some things need to be about me and this was one of those things.
When I finally got my dodger and had the first chance to use it I was thrilled. Suddenly our cockpit was much warmer since it blocked the wind and I had a dry place to sit. With the lights I could even read at night in the cockpit snuggled up with a blanket.
This past weekend when the weatherperson was right for once - unfortunately in this case, I was once again able to appreciate my dodger. While Sam was dressed in his foul weather gear driving the boat I was in my tshirt and shorts sitting under the dodger. What a beautiful thing it was. I was dry, reasonably warm (it is Seattle), and happy while Sam was soaking wet. This seemed to be perfect.
Sam got to be on his sailboat while I got to feel like I was on a powerboat almost - okay I won't mention how slow we were going but that meant he just got to spend more time in the rain. At that moment I realized I might not have gotten exactly the type of boat I would have chosen but I had my dodger. Sam on the other hand got to truly experience the joy of an open cockpit in a rainstorm. Wow - occasionally life is really in balance.
