Leave a comment about this day On January 30, 2023, I had a very pleasant and extremely patient guest from Nebraska. Kim Heying, who I have worked with for 20 years. She knew my focused behavior. The weather was not particularly good, but she went along with my desire to get out on the water and I could not have had a better first mate for this trip.

As with every shakedown trip, I was looking for any problem that may need my attention now, so I would not have to deal with it on the trip. A couple of interesting things occurred. I had a problem starting the engine because of a malfunction with the man-overboard switch. I have backups if that occurs during the trip, but I want it to be functional before we leave. A little tweaking of the wires fixed the problem.

It was a particularly shallow water day. The coast guard had issued a negative tide alert, and there was a barge that ran aground. I was following a path I had moved through before, but because of the negative tide, I ran aground in soft mud. I was unable to move the boat mechanically or with the engine. My next option was to throw the anchor out into deeper water and winch the boat out of the mud. I did not have to do that because a nice guy passing by in a fishing boat threw me a rope and pulled us out. It was another adventure with a new problem solved. A great day!