After two days of motoring we are back at Indiantown marina preparing to head north. Yesterday had a couple of moments of excitement between the bridges. At about three pm we ran out of fuel – sort of. Voila has two fuel tanks. The original main tank and an additional tank under the port settee. The fuel from the extra tank is gravity fed into the main tank but only if we remember to open the valve. It is not an ongoing process. Guess what? we left it too long and ran out of fuel. We were in a quiet part of the channel so I was not too worried. Unfortunately when the engine runs out of fuel it needs to be bled before it will start again. We did this and no luck. Alan then realised he had to refill the primary filter with fuel. During this process the wind came up.
Felicity “ Alan, I think we have a problem up here.”
Alan “I am almost finished”
Felicity more emphatically “ We have a problem NOW” I was trying desperately to use the momentum of the current to steer the boat.
Alan “ Just a minute”
Felicity “ Come up here now. We are in trouble!!”
Alan came up and made it to the bow just in time to fend off from a cement retaining wall. A nice elderly gentleman from Vancouver Island came along and offered to help, pushing the boat off with his cane. He offered us the use of his wharf around corner. The problem was that we needed to start the engine to get there and at that point we would no longer have a problem. We finally got the engine restarted, and were on our way. Lesson learned… drop anchor no matter how little wind there is.
The destination for the night was Manatee Pocket in Stuart, a place we know well we thought. Close to dusk we enter the bay slowly as there is only a foot or so under the keel in many places. When we arrive at the anchoring spot we discover a dredging boom across the entrance. After exploring some other locations and wiggling in the mud once or twice we found a spot to drop anchor behind the boom.
Today was an uneventful motorboat trip along the Okeechobee Waterway and through the lock to Indiantown Marina. The only excitement was our effort to back into our slip wit a cross wind. This is something we need to practice although no damage was done. This marina has a potluck on Saturday so we said hello to some old friends and helped ourselves to BBQ pork and chicken.
The next few days will be busy with cleaning out the boat, packing the car and arranging an insurance survey.
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