HOUSEBOATING (Cont.)

HOUSEBOATING - 1
Saturday, Sept. 25, 1982.
The weekend is starting out as a “bummer“. It started raining during the night. Some were trying to sleep out on deck, until they were flushed out. Anne and Rick moved into their car to spend the rest of the night, and the others came inside, dripping.
The gas gauge shows the tank a third down, and the water tank empty! We had to fill the tank in the rain. We told the HF employee that there must be a leak in the water tank! (Note:- After our return on Sunday, we found out why the water tank was empty. A HF employee was putting water in the vent spout, instead of the tank filler!)
About 8;30, we went to the office to get someone to check us out. It was pouring rain! You say that we should have gotten a weather report before leaving home? We confirmed our reservation on September 9th.
After checking us out on Disappointment Slough, he brought us back in and gassed-up the boat.
We left the HF dock at 0930, Saturday. Raining! Our reservation half over and we are just leaving. Heading west in Disappointment Slough (I wonder how it got it’s name?). Then, north to Potato Slough. West to San Joaquin River, arriving here at 1130. Then, we headed north to the Mokelumne river. Then east to the South Mokelumne river. Sounds like we were going in a circle. Probably were!
At 1315, we attempted to anchor for lunch and fishing. During the maneuvering, and jockeying the throttle, the throttle linkage broke. Now, we are stranded against the rocks lining the inside of the levee’.
A Holiday Flotel boat passed by, and we hailed it. They then went east a quarter of a mile, to a private pier. Two of the passengers went into the house to phone Holiday. An hour later, we were still stranded. Another boat came by, and we hailed them. They tried CB-ing Holiday, but they weren’t monitoring their radio. So, the people on the other boat, very nicely,
radioed the Coast Guard.
At 1440, another small boat came by and said that the first boat had given the Coast Guard the wrong end of the Slough, for our location. The Coast Guard called Holiday, and they said that they would dispatch their chase boat. (To be continued).