A Shark Story the Conclusion

We worked feverishly with the buckets to empty the water from the boat.

After about 45 min. most of the water was gone, and I could see no new water coming in. I looked over the side of the boat and noticed since we had stopped chumming most of the sharks had left. Now how were we going to start the motors with 2 dead batteries? I went to the medicine chest and got the bottle of aspirin, then I dropped 1 in each battery cell. The acid in the aspirin would give me one quick burst of power. I waited about 15 min for the aspirin to work, then used my jumper cables to hook both batteries to the engine that started the quickest. Crossing my fingers and holding my breath I turned the key...

The engine turned slowly, rrrrrr, rrrrrr, rrrrrr, varoom!! What a sweet sound. I let the engine run for about 10 minutes to charge the batteries up then started the other engine, when both engines were running smoothly I went back to the engine compartment to see if I could discover where the water was coming from. I immediately saw water coming from the rubber hose that connects the riser to the exaust system, it had split and a good amount of water was flowing out into the bildge. I shut the motor down and tightly wrapped duct tape around the hose, that quick repair would get me home, the hose could be replaced tomorrow.

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I have been chartering in Southern California for thirty years, I have learned many tricks on making emergency repairs to get the boat back to port, ( no service stations out here, you are on your own! ) These also work on you car or motorhome when you find yourself far from services. In my stories I will give some helpful hints on how to make it back when you are stuck.