Our Boat Broke Down Inside Our Marina
This past weekend Scott and I took the boat out for a quick spin on Elliott Bay then it broke down inside our marina! More on that later in this blog. Originally, we had hoped to take it through the locks with friends and spend the day on Lake Washington (Thank God we didn’t do that!). Due to the smoke and haze from all of the forest fires, we decided it wouldn’t be that great of day on the water. So we have been staying in and making dinner at home.
Since it had been a couple of weeks since we had been on the boat, we wanted to clean it and take it for a ride on Elliott Bay, just to keep the engines happy. The waters were so calm – my only caution, is you have to watch for logs! Going across the bay towards West Seattle, there is always a trail of logs (that’s where we hit a huge one last year).
We were almost to Alki Beach, when we were surrounded by logs, so we turned around and traveled towards Harbor Island and Downtown Seattle. Just as we were crossing in front of Harbor Island, a huge freighter was coming in at full speed. It was time to get out of his way and head back to the marina.
Returning to the marina
Scott and I have the same routine (as I’m sure other boaters do) when we come back to the dock. We’ll pull into Smith Cove just outside Elliott Bay Marina, lower our fenders and then head slowly into the marina. We had just entered, when the starboard engine died. (X marks the spot).
To give you some perspective, here’s a photo of what that fairway looks like. This is exactly where we were when the starboard engine quit.
When one of our engines die, an alarm goes off. He immediately attempted to restart it, but it wouldn’t start. It sounded like it was choking – or not getting enough gas. This makes me think it might be the fuel line. Okay, back to the drama! Now we’re in the middle of a busy fairway and we’ve lost an engine AND our power steering. There’s no way, we are going to attempt the “S curve” back to our slip on one engine and no steering. Notice the rocky breakwater wall!
Drama in the marina
Scott managed to turn the boat around and head back to the cove. There we decided to try dock it on the “yacht” dock, the outside of N. Since we have stern drives and no rutter, it was really hard to steer the boat. Scott did a great job approaching N Dock and then lining up the port side to the dock. My job was to catch a cleat with the pole. That sounds easy, until you are traveling fast and trying to stop a 11,000lb boat!
Yes, I did have my Crewfit 35 Sport USCG Life Vest
We also didn’t have a bad neighbor! Check out
Who do you call now?
If you are a smart boater, you have towing insurance with Boat U.S. The first thing I signed up for when we bought Kokomo, was the Unlimited Saltwater Towing Membership – $149/year! Trust me, it’s worth every penny! They asked where we were, what slip were we in and then said they would be here in an hour. Trust me, he arrived exactly 60 minutes later!
While we were waiting, we were entertained by all of the harbor seals. In addition, we could see how rough the waves get when docked on N Dock. Our boat was bobbing wildly. Remember the story about the boat that exploded during a wind storm?
Tim pulled up and told us he wanted to check out our slip first and then come back for us.
When Tim returned, he needed us to turn the boat around. He grabbed our bow lines and I kept the stern lines loose, but secured. Then he secured the port side to the tow boat and Scott jumped on board to the bow. Once we were ready, I jumped on the stern and pushed us off. We both had poles, ready to push off any objects.
Slowly, he moved us into the marina and towards our slip. Tim had called the dockmaster and had help waiting for us at our slip. I tried to video tape the whole event, but I also needed to be safe. So I only got a little bit of footage. The entire feat was truly impressive. Not only did he tow us through the “S curve” fairway, he literally brought us directly into our slip, where we threw the lines to the guys on the dock. In about 5 minutes, we were secured!
Fixing the boat
First thing on Monday, we called Paul, the mechanic who worked on it last Spring during our haul out. He said it sounded like a fuel line issue, but he was booked until September 1st. Since the boat is for sale, we can’t wait that long. Scott then called Lake Union Sea Ray and they sent out a mobile technician on Tuesday to check it out. Lake Union Sea Ray is one of the only Mercury service departments in the area.
Scott called me at work with the news and said it wasn’t good! I braced myself for the bad news and grabbed my checkbook. What do you think was wrong with the engine? Well, to find out, be sure to watch our YouTube episode below. Such is life of a new boater!
We have some more exciting news, so stay tuned for our next blog for a full update. Until then, have a great week and thank you for subscribing to our blog.
Cheers,
Scott and Ally
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