The house batteries lasted just long enough to keep the food cold overnight. By 7:30 a.m. the house bank had 10.9 volts of reserve. It’s not good to drain lead-acid deep cycle batteries too much under 11, so we were good. Next season I’ll add a series-wired pair of 6-volt golf cart batteries to increase capacity. The starting battery was unaffected and the engines cranked up with no problems. A pair of boats had left sometime last night, and there was some space with power on the wall. Mia and I moved No Losses fifty feet forward.
I made one last trip to the breakfast joint for coffees to go. Mia took Fender T. Dog for a walk. They were gone for over an hour.
I parked myself on the aft deck to write in my log. A man approached and introduced himself as Alan. We chatted for a few minutes. He was a local. He asked if he could have a cup of coffee. I told him that we didn’t have any because we couldn’t get to a store. He offered to drive us to the supermarket “after I get out of my anger management counseling session.” I gratefully declined, and he continued to the next boat up the line.
Alan was on his third boat when Mia and Fender T. Dog returned with a can of coffee! Mia said she decided to walk to the convenience store — a two-mile round trip (uphill both ways!).
The last thing I did before waving a fond and heartfelt farewell to Seneca Falls was visit the facilities for a shower. As I came out of the shower room into the lobby, I saw an older gentleman seated in a chair. He introduced himself as Tim from Ohio and told me he was 78 years old. He was waiting for his wife to come out of the Ladies’ shower. We chatted. He and his wife were on their way home to Cleveland on their 30-footer.
As I shook his hand and wished him safe journey he said, “I want to leave you with something that is both a blessing and a curse, and how you perceive it depends only on you: May all of your days be challenges.“