September 12&13
Marina & Potomac
Crew: solo

This was supposed to be the trip where I took a multiple over-nighter and anchored out in a new location at least one of the nights. That plan quickly began to unravel when I got to the boat Friday afternoon, dove into several maintenance projects (loose wiring and dinghy issues), and soon found myself looking at dinner time! Ah well, no matter; I'll make it a full day tomorrow and Sunday!

The unraveling continued Saturday morning when it came time to warm up the engine as I got her ready to leave the marina, and found that the starter would barely turn over. I'd had this problem after anchoring in the marina on the last trip, but I figured that after almost two weeks of charging on shore power, the batteries would be full of juice! I eventually used my trusty little emergency battery to get her started. She restarted immediately after running for awhile but would not after sitting for 30 minutes.

I tried everything that I could think of (which ain't much!), and eventually thought I'd seen some improvement, so after arranging with Don down the dock to stand by his radio in case I needed a tow, I set out to try to salvage the day. The wind was light, but at least I was sailing! I decided to sail for 30 minutes just off the marina and try the battery to make sure before I attempted to go anywhere.

Again, it didn't seem to have enough juice to turn the engine over, but my back-up battery came through for the second time in one day, and I was able to motor back to my slip. My usual maintenance gurus were not in attendance this trip, so having reached the limits of my expertise, I was left with nothing to do but back up and head home.

FRUSTRATING!!