Aug 5, 2021

The fuel dock was in sight. I throttled up and steered Serendipity toward the boathouse at the Eldorado marina. 

I was coming in hot.

The fuel gauge read 0 percent. Suddenly the motor sputtered and then quit and I was forced to drift in faster than I wanted to. I heard the gas jockeys yelling at me to slow down. I wish I could, but the motor was now out of fuel and not running. I turned the boat and tried to slow myself down.

No power at all meant no control of my speed.

I was going to hit.

I left my cockpit and ran to the bow of the boat and leaped over. I jumped off the boat, turned and managed to prevent a catastrophic collision. 

I felt an ocean of emotion flow through me: Embarrassment at my entrance to the fuel dock. Stupidity that I could have let my gas get so low and relief that I made it without paddling.  

The day started out well enough. I had until 1:30 to pick up my tour and all I needed was to clean the boat. It’s amazing how time can get away when I think I have a lot of it.

I hate having a bathroom on the boat. Some people love it but when it overflows it’s the nastiest piece of work I can think of when it comes to cleaning the Biltmore. Most people are pleasantly surprised when they see the bathroom in the hull of our tour boat. Luxury Lake Tours is called that partly because it has a head (as they call it in boating lingo). Then the head overflows and I deal with the mess that needs cleaning, I call it a number of other colourful words.

I’ll stick with Head for now. 

After my unpleasant task I realized that time was no longer on my side and I had forty minutes to get to the launch, empty the holding tank and drive across the lake to the Eldorado. 

At least I had three quarters of a tank of gas… or so I thought. Thats what thinking can get sometimes. It can get me panicked as I drove across the lake and crashed headlong into the dock out of fuel.

Talk about feeling like a Jackass…

It was time to pull my self together and show these good folks an amazing time on the water. We had no problem giving them a fun ride on the tube crusing across the water and spinning them around.

The smoke had mostly lifted so the warm air embraced us on the calm waters of the Okanagan Lake. Calm except for all wake created by wake surfe boats as they cruised by. First world problems are when the waves on the lake are created by other boats and that’s the biggest problem.

After we extended their tour by an extra half hour, they enjoyed the views of the amazing homes that populate the shores of the Okanagan Lake.

After two hours of cruising the waters, I dropped my group off and cruised back to the dock. I was relieved they were gone and not surprised by the lack of a tip. 

I returned to dock and watched the wind begin to whip up. The wind on Okanagan Lake can blow up in a hurry, especially from the south. Today the wind began as a ripple on the water, and within ten minutes there were two foot rollers crashing into the fuel dock. 

I looked over at the dock, then down at the fuel gauge, and figured I could make it back to West Kelowna. 

Into the mouth of the wind I throttled up the vessel and braced for a wild ride home. That’s when the alarm went again and the fuel level was suddenly below 20 percent. I didn’t want to risk another crossing and not make it…

The rollers were crashing hard on the face of the fuel dock, I shouted to the attendant if they could put in some fuel. I figured thirty bucks would get me home. 

He questioned my sanity but agreed to put in some go-juice. I didn’t want to drive into a big headwind and run out of fuel. 

Waves crashed hard across my bow as they pushed Serendipity 2 off into the storm. It was a thrilling feeling as I throttled up into the headwind.I enjoyed the feeling of the spray from the water crashing into the bow of tritoon boat. 

I felt alive. There was a connection with nature and the water spirits that lifted me up and filled my soul. I powered across the water and bounced over the waves. As I closed on the other side of the lake the waves lessened.

My speed increased.

I looked down at the speedo and saw I was going over 77 kilometres per hour. The fastest I had ever driven on the water. The boat bounced across the top off the waves like they were ball bearings on a roller coaster ride. 

Time to check the gas level… I let off the throttle but the boat seemed like it wanted more and rode smoother at over 70 kmph. What a ride it was and I ate up the distance to the launch in no time.

I breathed a sigh of relief and regret as I approached the westbank boat launch. It was a thrill to sail across the waves with such little effort. I gained a new appreciation for Serendipity 2. I also learned not to trust the fuel gauge…