We woke up from a nap yesterday afternoon to head to the island for a birthday celebration that was postponed the day before due to awesome fishing and found our dinghy missing. I heard someone cranking on an outboard that sounded just like ours but I was half asleep and not very concerned about someone taking our dinghy while we were aboard. In broad daylight. Next to a crowded island. So I didn’t check. We’re pretty sure it was stolen. Conveniently, the one pair of decent binoculars we have were in the dinghy so we couldn’t do much scoping out of things. Also aboard: new dive knife, 20 feet of hefty chain, two locks which aren’t currently locking things, fuel tank, life jackets and throwable, oars, and, the worst part of all, a 2hp Johnson my grandfather gave me when I was 16.

Not having the dinghy pretty much cuts us off from any available supplies in the area so it looks like we’ll be heading back to the car to start looking for a new one.

The Sanibel pd were no help. They stonewalled us with some “intent to prosecute” document that must be completed to report the dinghy as stolen. They don’t provide dockage at headquarters so our dinghy is “missing” until we can get there. They did tell us that they had a “ton of reports” of missing dinghies in the area yesterday. Plus one for stolen. The sargeant didn’t know the popular anchorage we’re in but he did want to know the type of knot we used to tie the dinghy up.

Morale is low.