I fancy a kind of 'spot the ball' alternative to the more mundane 'where is it'. I don't know whether to call it 'where was it' or maybe 'why isn't it there any more'. Perhaps 'Who's got it now'? Not sure really. Sometimes, I lie awake in the early hours and these thoughts come to me in a creative blast.
Learned a lesson in Dumbuie on how you should inflate a dinghy well at least a Zodiac.
We had chartered a yacht 3 of us and while in Dumbuie we inflated the dinghy and 2 went ashore. As they got to the shore something ripped one of the tubes the largest tube of course about a 6 inch cut clean as a whistle. As it was the larger tube meant there was little support left. I thought my friends were being very friendly waving from the shore so I just waved back and they still kept waving. Was then I realised the dinghy was well and truly punctured. Luckily there was another yacht and they were able to go to the rescue and also provide us with a huge patch. Spent the rest of day sewing up the tear and applying the patch and the repair survived for another 2 weeks.
Lesson learned. Most inflatables has one tube larger than other (or is case with Zodiac) you should inflate the smaller tube first as it's bell end will inflate into the larger tube. Doing this means that you will have about 40/45% of your buoyancy left if larger tube tears as against the probably 25/30% buoyancy which was left as we had inflated large tube first.
The same happened to me about 8 weeks ago at Colintrive in a similiar Zodiac but this time I had remembered the previous lesson, we did get a lift back by another yacht but there was sufficient buoyancy to have got back if need be if probably getting a bit wet. Was also a great opportunity to socialise with other sailors.