We have never had the largest, newest or most expensive boats. Along the way with the help of the members of the CWBB, Pirates and CSBB, we always managed to have them pretty well equipped. I modified, replaced and equipped each with proper systems that were dependable and provided a sense of security while out on our fresh water sea. I had backups, spares, the correct tools, extra ground tackle, fresh lines and things taken care of like most sailing folk do. Kind of self sufficient.

Sometime in the last three years of owning a powerboat I have become complacent. I'm not sure when it happened, but it did. This past weekend I had the wake up call. In my previous life I would have been totally irritated with my fuel gauge situation to the point of tearing it out and throwing the entire system in the dumpster, replacing with all new. For some reason I did not do that. I have been messing around, checking wiring, senders etc and stopped doing what I always do, fixing things. We ran out of fuel in the worst possible place, a narrow shipping channel that connects our bay and Lake Erie. It was an very busy day with lots of pleasure boat traffic. Wind was extremely light and the protected channel offered no chance of raising sail to clear the entrance. Fortunately, by reducing throttle to just above idle and staying as near the bulkhead as possible, we did get to the entrance withou mishap. We ran the tank dry about 300 yards out into the lake. The day ended with a trip back to our slip behind the Boat US tow. The captain was most pleasant and skillful.

The thing is, I did not take care of things. I believed what the broker and PO told me about the gauge situation. I checked the sender output and it verified that the tank was nearly full, but it was not. While our situation over the weekend was not great, it could have been much worse for the delivery captain. He brought the boat in at night and unknown to either of us had enough fuel to get in plus 1.2 miles. We both believed the broker and the PO. Had he run out, that would have been my fault as well. True enough this is a sailboat and equipped with sails, however, in the dark with the new breakwall at our club entrance, sailing a strange boat, in square Lake Erie waves to 6 feet could have been a USCG statistic.