I bought my first sailboat at the beginning of April of this year in Tom's River, N.J. The boat had to get up to Brooklyn, N.Y., and since my boating experience up to that point was limited, I hired a professional captain and we both brought the boat up the ICW and the Atlantic Ocean.

My girlfriend drove us the hour and a half to the N.J. marina and dropped us off at around 7:30 A.M. The day started fine, calm water and clear skies. To get to the Atlantic Ocean from Tom's River we had to motor up the ICW and have 5 drawbridges lifted for us. The first 2 were lifted with no problem. As we approached the 3rd bridge, I radioed ahead just as I had with the previous two bridges, the bridge was lifted, we motored underneath, and sure enough, as we were directly beneath the span, we ran out of gas! We quickly hoisted the mainsail, no wind, put more gas into the tank (we had a spare tank on board), but the outboard's pull cord was locked, then we had trouble opening the hatch of the motor to inspect the problem with the cord. While all of this was going on, we had a very angry drawbridge operator telling us to get the heck out of there and a line of vehicle traffic that seemed to be getting longer by the second. Coincidentally, a N.J. State Police boat was nearby, overheard our radio communications and came over to tow us away from the bridge. We dropped an anchor, fixed the motor, and got on with our trip.

We finally made it to the Manasquan Inlet, our entrance to the Atlantic, at around 12:30 P.M. After nearly 5 hours of motoring, the motor was turned off, the sails were hoisted, and we were ready to use the boat for its intended purpose...sailing! There was one problem however, The 10-15 mph winds predicted for that day were not there, in fact there wasn't any wind at all. We just bobbed up and down in the Atlantic for nearly an hour before we started moving. Eventually, the wind did pick up and we slowly made our way up the Jersey coastline. The sun went down at around 7:00 P.M., just as we were passing the northernmost tip of the Jersey shore, Sandy Hook. We still had about 4 hours of sailing to do.

As we approached Brooklyn from the ocean (around 10:00 P.M.) we dropped the sails, and used the motor for what should have been a 45 minute motor trip. Considering that I have a 6 hp, we did ok for speed at this point, although it was very cold on the deck. As we made our way to my marina, I started straightening up the cabin and was excited to be getting to my warm home. When we were about 10 minutes from the marina, we heard a sound that we already heard one too many times, the sound of the motor running out of gas. So here we were, on the water for about 16 hours, in the cold, 10 minutes from home, and in need of gas. Down went the anchor again, and out came the cell phone. Boy was I glad that I had purchased unlimited towing and services the day before. After waiting for a half hour, a delivery of gas was made. Finally, we could get the boat into its slip.

About a half mile before the marina is a drawbridge. The 6th one that we would need lifted for this trip. As usual, I radioed my request that the bridge be lifted, but I got back an unusal respone. The operator informed us that because of overnight construction on the bridge, it couldn't be lifted for us. I was dumbfounded. Our options were limited, motor to the nearest marina (on the side of the bridge that we were on) about an hour away, or drop the anchor, and go through in the daytime after the construction would be cleared. The captain preferred the second option since it would mean a second day's pay for him. Well, after begging the drawbridge operator to open it up for us for 15 minutes, one of the members of the construction crew interfered with our radio conversation. Feeling sympathy for us, he cleared a truck and some equipment from one of the leafs of the bridge and had it lifted for us. It turns out that I've since measured the height of the mast above the waterline and I am now able to clear the bridge at any point in the tide cycle without a problem. Finally, we motor to the slip, after nearly 17 hours in the boat.

While flaking the sail around the boom, we discovered that I had a 10 inch tear in the mainsail which must have been made while we were sailing in the dark. As upset as I was to discover this, I was just glad that the tear wasn't larger than it was. Finally, we left the boat at like 2:00 A.M. I had my car waiting at the marina to take the captain home (about a half hour drive). Just as I thought the day's adventures and challenges were over, about 5 minutes into our drive, the car died. Too tired to try and solve that problem, I put him into a cab ($45!!!), had the cab drop me off at home and left the car until the next day. Since then, I've had the sail repaired, and always, I mean always, keep a full gas tank and a full spare on board. Fortunately, every other sailing trip that I have on the boat has been nothing but pleasurable. After all, compared to that day, any trip would be a pleasure trip.