Day 13

This day, unlike the last one, was considerably more eventful.

Calm day with little wind or waves but a tidal current to consider. We were motoring along easily enjoying the lift from the current headed for a marina to refuel. Then the motor stopped. Consternation. This issue not normal for a motor to simply stop, unless it runs out of fuel. Which it had. A mile from the marina. Darn.

There’s a thing called SeaTow, which is basically CAA for boats. Fortunately Lisa has this service. She called and it seems that they were quite busy towing other boats and it would be several hours before they would arrive. Since we were adrift in a current with commercial traffic in the river, several hours didn’t seem like a feasible solution. Speaking of commercial traffic, a passing tug/barge hailed us on the VHF radio wondering if we’re going to get out of his way. After explanations he thoughtfully altered his course. He then called back reporting that there was no more commercial traffic coming our way, and had reported ‘vessel adrift in the river’ to some authority somewhere. Nice guy on that tug. Strike 1

I had the idea of calling the marina and asking them to bring us a few gallons of diesel. Lisa called and the guy said his helper was at lunch and he’d call back. Which of course he didn’t. Another call by Lisa and the guy said they couldn’t deliver due to’ insurance reasons’. Strike 2. 

Lisa spotted the dingy and had an ‘aha!’ moment. She’d take the dingy and an empty jerry can to the marina, fill it and bring it back.  She set off with the 2 HP engine on the dingy purring along. The marina is still a mile or more away and around a bend in the river, so she quickly disappeared from sight. I was getting a bit concerned after an hour without a sighting of her return. I did see a speck in the middle of the river, but she would have been hugging the shore?? I got the binoculars out, spied the dot and there she was, rowing!! And rowing, and rowing and rowing against the current. Eventually she arrived and reported that she had run out of gas and the current pushed her away from shore. We added the 5 gallons to the tank, fired up the Westerbeke and we were under way again. No strike 3.  

Arrived at the marina, topped off the tank, and filled 2 jerry cans. We lost a few hours which meant we couldn’t make or intended destination for three day, so we decided to stop for the day. Also Lisa was a bit whacked. Good thing she’s fit. The marina guy was a real unhelpful grump, so we went to the nearby Marlboro Yacht Club where we were warmly welcomed.

Odd that all this happened on day 13.