Capatain's Blog: August 1, 2010 (Voyage #22) *Almost!

Well it's another great weekend.  We couldn't afford to go out both Saturday and Sunday, and since it's Deb's birthday on Sunday we decided to go out then.  We arrived at Rourke Bros. Memorial Boat Ramp about 9:30.  I had made homemade bagels the night before to bring for our ritual breakfast on the beach.  My son Robert needed to use the truck today and agreed to drop us off, and pick us up later that evening.  We launched the boat and waved good-bye to Rob.  I lowered the motor, got behind the steering wheel, turned the key, the engine rev'd up and then slowly died.
I repeated this process several times, thinking we haven't been out for a couple of weeks, but to no avail.  It was time to really see what was happening.  A closer inspection revealed a gas line hose clamp that had failed, and we were probably taking in air, and that's why we kept dying.  Having been trained by a very prepared boat caption (my dad), I had additional hose clamps in my emergency kit.  I replaced the clamp, fixed the leak, and tried again.  Only this time, there wasn't enough kick left in the battery to turn her over.
We sat just off of the ramp waiting to see if we could get her going, but no luck.  We were dead in the water, literally, and it was time to face reality.  We just weren't getting out there today.  It was time to call our son back from Nashua to rescue us.  Rob returned, and we pulled Third Generation out of the water and headed back home with long faces.  Even the boat looked depressed!

As soon as we pulled in the driveway I hooked up the battery charger and she kicked right over.   I can't tell you how hard it was making the decision not to risk breaking down with a weak battery, but let's face it, the probability was pretty good that we would be rowing this afternoon instead of motoring.  Considering it was Deb's birthday . . . would you have taken the chance?  The battery was old and it was starting to loose it's charge after only a short time.  I guess it's time to face reality and accept the fact that we need to buy a new marine battery.  Considering our economic times it may be a bit before we get on the river again, so in the meantime we are going to have to be happy with our new port,  So until we see you on the river again!  Ahoy from our driveway in Port Nashua!

A special thanks to Gary, Linda and April for stopping by and making Deb's B-day a little brighter!