Tenders of a different kind...

Tender - Noun; A small boat that brings supplies to larger vessels in a port.

Every boat should have one. Bella has one and our family has affectionately named her R2D2 (ouR Rinky Dinky Dinghy). Most of the time R2D2 gets the job done without notice. However, on occasion when loaded with too many sailors in large swells and big winds it's most exciting. Just ask our adult son Sean.

Typical duty for R2D2 is bringing people to and from the boat rather than supplies. I suppose every boat needs a supply of people so perhaps the definition still holds true; however, I've never considered myself and others as "supplies". At times we've pushed the limits of the number of "supplies" we ferried. Of course this always causes us to look wantonly at other larger and more capable tenders. In the end, R2D2 gets us there and back...sometimes in one trip and other times in two.

Now for tenders of a different kind, land tenders. What gets us land-bound sailors over land to the water's edge? As the captain, my land tender is the truck-tender. We use it to ferry large supplies such as kayaks and beach cruisers. The admiral has the mid-size SUV-tender for ferrying smaller supplies. As a crew we typically take one of these two depending on our needs. In some rare cases we've been forced to take both.

However, as a sailor who often makes solo trips to Bella neither is really the perfect land tender. With high fuel prices and low miles per gallon (rationalization #1) the truck tender is not only very expensive to drive, but from an environmental standpoint (rationalization #2), can only be justified when loaded down with supplies. Then you've got the heavy freeway traffic to contend with. As a solo driver in the truck tender I'm not only contributing to the freeway congestion, I'm also unable to use the energy and time saving diamond lane (solidifying rationalization #2 and introducing rationalization #3). So it became very clear that it was my duty to my family's financial future, the environment and fellow freeway travelers to find a more responsible land tender for solo trips to Bella. After all these are very serious issues.

Therefore, after conducting extensive research of electric and hybrid vehicles, I concluded the best solution is the two-wheeled land tender. It reduces fuel expenses, reduces air pollution, reduces freeway congestion and reduces travel time. There, a perfectly justified purchase of a pre-owned Harley. See I'm recycling too (solidifying rationalization #3) . I love it when a plan comes together.