One Photo: One Story: B.O.A.T

My boat spent many a day on the trailer, in the driveway mocking me. I’d go to and from work every day and I’d see it sitting there. Waiting. It used to make me insane.

I was looking forward to spending a free Saturday on the water with my wife. We’d would cruise the Mullica River from the mouth of the Great Bay and west up to the second bridge at Green Bank in the New Jersey Pine Barrens. A journey 20 miles round trip.

You can fish, tube, waterski, and enjoy the wildlife along this estuary. It’s truly beautiful scenery. The river is saltwater near the great bay and slowly turns fresh as you move up the river.

Stripers spawn with Blueback Herring. In the fresh water, largemouth bass, pickerel, and white perch are plenty. In the brackish area you can catch weakfish, eel, and summer flounder. It’s truly a fisherman’s paradise.

Birds are abundant along with turtles and if you’re lucky the occasional bald eagle and various shore and migratory birds can be seen playing and hunting along the banks.

We loved cruising the Mullica River with family, friends, and our dog Seamus. So, I was excited to have a day off on the water.

I hooked up the trailer and boat to the truck.

At the gas station I was a bit short on money and dumped twenty dollars into the Mercury 125hp outboard. We were planning on running four or five hours, twenty miles round trip.

I could go a week to and from work on $20 in gas in my vehicle. So, when I put all the money in pocket into the gas tank of the boat, I figured a twenty would let us run all day.

The gas efficiency between a 2-stroke marine engine and your everyday car is drastic. I knew this, I really did.

I joined Sea Tow before we set off as the boat sat idle all winter. Add the fact that my gas gauge hadn’t worked in a few summers, I figured it would be prudent. Boat the old cliché says: Break Out Another Thousand, sadly is true.

It was a beautiful day, we fished, watched the birds, and floated aimlessly up and down the river. It was a perfect day on the water.

So perfect that we took photo to say hello to everyone on Facebook. It was great.

And then, we ran out of gas and drifted to a halt. We were 100 yards from the dock.

With a few bars of cell service and the sun setting behind us, I called Sea Tow. They weren’t too keen on helping since I hadn’t passed the 24-hour waiting period for service. I keep pleading with the nice lady about how it was getting dark and we were being bitten by man eating

Mosquitos.

We were relieved when the Sea Tow captain’s light shined on our boat. He towed us the 100 yards to the dock. As we were departing, he said; “Hey you could have just paddled the rest of the way in.”

I shot back, “Why? I have Sea Tow.”