The other day I ran into an old friend I had not seen since last Spring, and as we were catching each other up on what's transpired in our respective lives he told me about his attempt to enjoy a vacation last September.
It was an incredulous story.
He and his partner J, along with a few other friends. rented a 65-foot boat at Lake Powell in Utah, and were all set to enjoy a week of relaxation and merriment on the lake.
So they piled in the car and drove southwest from Denver...and promptly got caught in the first serious snowstorm of the season, which not only turned a usually casual, scenic drive into a slow nightmare of driving in limited visibility and avoiding icy patches, but also got them rear-ended by a driver who was not so adept at navigating through the aforementioned driving conditions.
That collision wasn't enough to deter their plans though, and after nearly 15 hours of driving (15 hours to drive a little under 400 miles...yikes), they arrived at the lake.
The boat they had rented did not come with a skipper, so D, who had served in the Navy and had a bit of experience on the water but not in piloting a 65 foot boat, had to take a short instructional course on handling a boat of that size.
After the short tutorial the crew set out for a week of fun cruising along the nearly nineteen hundred miles of shoreline that were created when the Glen Canyon dam was built in the late 1950's / early 1960's.
Except a few days into the voyage they lost one of the engines and had to make their way back to the Marina for repairs and to refuel. As D was not familiar enough with piloting a hobbled boat of that size to be sufficiently confident in his ability to safely dock the boat, they radioed the marina to send out a more experience pilot to handle the job. According to D, a young kid was sent out and, also according to D, put the boat into a slip at the fuel dock like a grizzled old pro.
The engine that had conked out was quickly repaired and the same young kid that had piloted the boat to the dock proceeded to refuel the boat (how much fuel goes into a 65 foot boat? 600 gallons. Fuel consumption for boats is measured in gallons per hour, and a 65 foot twin engine boat can use up to 15 gallons per hour).
After the refueling was completed D's party was all set to restart their vacation...and then BAM!, the boat suddenly lurched violently forward as if they had been rear-ended by another boat as they were still tied to the dock.
They all ran back towards the stern but immediately realized that something else had to have caused the loud boom and violent rocking of the boat, as there was no other boat behind them...which was when they smelled the smoke.
The harbor pilot/fuel deck attendant immediately started yelling "Fire! Fire! Everybody Run!"
A fire on a boat is a nightmare. A fire on a boat tied to a fuel dock is a potentially disastrous nightmare.
D told me he ran like he hadn't run in over thirty years (he meant that literally - he said it was the furthest and fastest he had run since his early twenties). The other members of the party also ran as fast and far as they could, with D stating that no one actually stopped until each and everyone of them just could not physically run anymore - one of them thinking they were going to have a heart attack due to the exertion and having to decide which would be worse, dying of a heart attack or in an explosion on a fuel dock.
Fortunately, the fire was contained before it had a chance to spread to the fuel dock or endanger any other boats or boaters at the marina, but it did consume the boat and bring an early end to the vacation.
And made my gripes about not getting a chance to take even a short vacation anytime soon very, very inconsequential.
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