A Three Hour Tour...

Yesterday, BF and I had a wonderful, perfect, magical day at camp. We started the day with pancakes, took a long boat ride around the lake and soaked in the sun, went to a very cute little wine shop and did a tasting, watched a few episodes of "Sopranos" on DVD (we've been making our way through the series for the past few months and still have two seasons left), relaxed, ate good food and enjoyed every minute of being together.

Today, we planned to do the same.

We weren't hungry when we woke up, so we decided to head out on the boat for a little ride and then come back and have a big breakfast. Our little ride ended up being a bit further than we'd originally planned, but the sky looked really gray and so we were trying to enjoy being outside before the rain came.

We had been in the boat about 30 minutes when it made a funny noise and shut off.

Um...

Weird.

Turn it back on.

*click*

Nothing.

Um...

Several thoughts went through my head.

1. I had just recently finished typing the "pre-trip" checklist staff are supposed to go through prior to taking the boat out. Why didn't I use that before we left? I'm quite certain neither of us checked the gas tank...

2. If in fact we are out of gas, what exactly is our emergency action plan? We are in the middle of nowhere, no other boats in sight and I didn't bring my cell phone.

3. WHY DIDN'T I BRING MY CELL PHONE??? I bring my cell phone to the bathroom when I brush my teeth, why didn't I bring it on a boat?!?!

4. Let's say I had my cell phone- who would I call? My dad is out of town and S&A, my two staff at camp don't have another boat, so what would they be able to do??

5. Stupid junky camp, stupid run down boat. What's wrong with this stupid thing now, I thought that our boat guy from in town checked this thing out before we launched it!! Obviously this is not my fault, I am a victim of a junky boat.

It turns out we did in fact, run out of gas.

The BF and I haven't been in a stressful situation yet. Past boyfriends would have yelled or freaked out. I was relieved and impressed that BF was calm and good natured through the whole thing. He was mad at himself for not checking the gas, but overall, we handled it in the same way- mildly amused, sort of annoyed that we were stuck and sort of unsure of what to do, but mostly just an easy going, "what are ya gonna do?" attitude.

We anchored the boat so we wouldn't drift into the weeds and then we sat calmly, discussing our options. We used his phone to call a mutual friend and ask him to facebook message my staff, explaining our situation and asking them to call BF's phone and help us. I wasn't sure if they would check their email and if they did, what exactly they would be able to do, but it was a start.

As we sat, hoping for another boat to pass, it started to lightly drizzle and that's when my patience for sitting around ended. I could see a dock, with a boat about 400 feet away. It was completely alone, no cabin in sight, and it looked sort of abandoned, but were pretty sure the dock must lead somewhere, like a road, so it was better than being stuck on the lake. There was also potential that the boat would work and we could borrow it.

BF didn't like the idea of me swimming. He offered to go, but I'm a lifeguard and he's not much of a swimmer, so I didn't like that idea either and we were at an impasse, neither of us wanting the other to go. At that point, it was raining and cold, so it was okay since neither of us was eager to jump in and swim to the abandoned dock without much of a plan.

When you pull the anchor up, the boat moves as you pull the rope, so I suggested that if we pulled in the anchor with force, the momentum would propel us forward and then we could throw the anchor out, pull it in, over and over until we go to the dock. BF was skeptical about the idea, but agreed to try.

30 throws, 30 pulls later BF was out of breath and exhausted, but we go to the dock. We grabbed the gas tank and headed into the woods and towards the sound of the road. We came out about 5 miles from camp and began walking down the highway. About 100 yards into our walk, a nice couple pulled over and asked us where we had come from and where we were going. When we told them camp, they let us know it was a ways away and asked if we would like a ride.

When we arrived back at camp, there was a power outage, so the staff had not seen our facebook plea for help, but it was probably better, because I still wasn't sure what they would have done. We filled the tank with gas and then they drove us back to the road we'd come out of. With a full tank of gas, the boat ran like a dream and we were back to the camp beach in no time.

Our 30 minute boat ride had turned out to be a three hour adventure, but it was a good experience to see how we deal with a crisis together. I have a tendency to get into situations like that- I don't try, but things like that just happen. So it was a good test to see how BF would react. He was wonderful, so I'll add that to the list of reason why he's a major catch...