Cruising is all about compromise. It will be a rare day when everything goes perfectly all day long. At some point, something less than ideal will occur and you will be forced to make a decision about how to proceed. You could either let this little hiccup bring you down or you could find a solution and keep your spirits up as you continue cruising along.
One such incident that could have rained on our parade was when we pulled into a marina to leave the boat for a few weeks while we did an excursion inland. We arrived with empty water tanks and depleted battery banks. Our first priority was to get the battery chargers plugged in to bring them up to speed again. Then we made a huge mistake.
We were tired from sailing into the river and marina, along with the ordeal of trying to bring a full keel sailboat along the end of a T head with the wind blowing us away from the pier. After we got the battery chargers hooked up, we were tired and put off the water tank filling until later. Later ended up being two weeks later, when we finally got back to the boat and still had empty water tanks.
We were making final preparations to leave the marina and needed to fill the water tanks before we left. Come to find out, there is no water on the pier. The well pump to the marina had gone out and the entire marina was now without water. This small run-down marina has long been neglected, and this was just another time when the neglect would continue. The marina owner got a quote to fix the water pump, $5,000, and with that he decided that the marina would no longer have water.
This is a problem because our water tanks are still empty and we no longer have access to a hose!
At this point, we could dwell on the fact that we have no water in our tanks, and no water in the marina. We also had to contend with the fact that we now have empty tanks because we put off filling our water tanks as soon as we got there.
Instead of dwelling on the problems, we simply filled our bladder tanks with drinking water and decided to set off!
We chose to keep positive and keep sailing anyways. Somewhere along the line, we will be able to fill our water tanks either with rain water or a hose we find along the way. Keeping a positive attitude will keep your spirits up as you continue sailing.
One very important lesson that we learned was to always fill our water tanks as soon as we arrive in port. This way, should the water go out in the marina, we already have full tanks!
