My Adventure Begins

By Mark A. Tucci

First, I’ve had a few trips with a friend on his sailboat. Then I though I would like one for myself. I watched E-Bay for some time, until I found one that was of a price I could afford. After successfully wining the bid on an Alacrity 18’6” in November 2006, I had to take a trip to Maine, over 200 Miles one way. It was an easy run up there; the weather was quite warm for that time of year. The boat was at that time named “Under Foot”, it look to be in fair shape. But it needed lots of work to get back up to speed. The trailer was what looked like a serviceable item also, except the tires were weather cracked, but I hoped I could make it home with no problems (not to be).
We used some duct tape and wrote In Tow on the back of the boat, with no plates for the trailer we could think of nothing else to do.
The Trip back started out good. The tires were a little low on air. So we ventured around the area for a while, looking for a gas station to put air in the tires and get some gas. Not having much luck, we used a hand pump on the trailer tires to keep them up for now. In the process, my friend and copilot found a seafood market where he bought a couple of lobsters and several pounds of shrimp to take back home. Now we were set for a while.
Finally we found a service station to get gas and air for the tires. They were down even more than they were to start with. After filling up with gas and air, we decided to add a can of fix-a-flat to help stop the air leak.
Finally feeling set to get going safely, we headed home. On the Interstate we went flying along blissfully for several hours. All the sudden a tire blows on the trailer. Having pulled over to the side, we check to see how bad things are. Not very good: the tire was shredded, it was getting dark and no spare to put on. (OH GREAT!)
Now the fun begins, having traveled using a GPS system, I checked to see if there was a service station close by that would be able to repair the flat. No luck again, so I call 911 for help. They dispatched a state trooper to help, after 30 minutes of waiting the trooper finally shows up. He checked us out and said we needed a tow truck to remove us from the thruway, Great! an expense that I did not count on or need. Again we waited approximately another hour before the tow truck shows up, he loaded the boat and trailer on the flatbed truck. Away we went to the service station to fix us up.
After another 20 minutes run we get to the station, only to find it closed for the night. The tow truck driver was of great help by calling around to see if there was any place to fix the tire. No luck again, every place was closed for the night or weekend. He gave us a couple of places we could try in the morning. With location in hand we head to the place to check it out, they will open in the morning, good!
Next to find something to eat and drink, as it has been a very long day plus I need to call home and tell my wife that. First the towing service ($175) and now a tire, too. So just down the road we find an all night dinner and finally get something to eat. Then back to the truck to get some sleep for me, while my friend stays up and goes back and forth to the diner getting some ice for the lobster and shrimps that are starting to smell. After a somewhat rough night of all most sleep we go back to the tire store to buy a tire, decided to get two new tires just in case ($65 each).
With new tires we head back to the service station to change them out. That part didn’t take too long and we were on the road again. After a few more hours driveing, there was a noise in the truck wheel some where. We pulled over to try and find what the problem was now. The best we could find was a wheel bearing was going in the back wheel ( Again Fun!).
Now I had to take it easy or be in it deep. After a long nerves stressed and a little luck we made home (36 hours instead of 14 hours). I drop the boat at a friend’s home for the winter for I had no place to put it for the time. That ended the trip and the start of reworking the boat.