My version ... and I'm sticking to it

Because The Kid's new alternator is too big for the old tension arm to support, yesterday afternoon I sawed off a piece of 1x4" plank and used a hammer to wedge it in for a tight fit between the alternator and the nearest support rib.

After admiring my ingenuity for almost an hour, I pronounced The Kid seaworthy and ready for boating action.

And she ran fine last night with AF and I aboard without a hint of any problems that couldn't be temporarily ignored. But just to be safe and not take chances, after about 15 minutes of cruising I headed for the nearest island, made sure there was plenty of water underneath, and shut down the engine.

The Kid's anchor rope isn't long enough to reach bottom unless the hull's practically aground - which explains why I always carry a spare anchor with 200 feet of rope around in my car (although it doesn't explain why I've never bothered actually putting it on the boat, where it might do some good).

AF and I spent the next 30 minutes or so sitting on the foredeck doing nothing, just looking at stars and watching traffic cross the bridge, then the depth sounder alarm sounded because we'd drifted close enough to the island that we now had just 10 feet of depth.

Trying to be careful again, I re-started the engine and ran us out far enough to have another 40 feet of depth, and shut back down.

The lake was like glass with hardly any current I could see, and maybe another 30 minutes went by while we sat in chairs on the foredeck just drifting along. Neither one of us heard the depth alarm go off again or felt the hull touch bottom but when I finally walked over and looked to the right there was the big island ... so close we coulda jumped ashore without getting our shoes wet.

We'd washed ashore, broadside like a beached whale, without even knowing it.

Of course the sterndrive was stuck in the mud.
Of course I couldn't raise Towboat on the VHF radio.
Of course Mike thought our predicament was hilariously funny when I called him on AF's cell.

Of course Mike suggested I roll up my pant legs, jump overboard with the 1x4 and use it like a big crowbar to pry the 34-foot boat off the bottom.
Of course I fouled the brand new spark plugs trying to get us unstuck.
Of course I ran both batteries down trying to get the engine to start.

Of course hysterically sobbing "Why me?!" with my face buried in a lifejacket for 20 minutes didn't help one bit (and probably only scared AF for no good reason).

Thank goodness for cell phones because Towboat US has a tollfree 1-800 24x7 service number and dispatched Captain Bill right away. Captain Bill and his assistant know their stuff and epitomize the word "professionalism" ... they're sorta the opposite of me when it comes to boating skill and expertise.

They towed us back to the marina without further incident (except when we were halfway back and Captain Bill finally stopped laughing, and threatened the cut the towline loose just to teach me a lesson), not even bumping the rub rails when we coasted to a stop at the dock.

Those guys are good.

I'm already thinking about taking The Kid back out tonight, just to see how close I can get to the beach without getting stuck.

Maybe this time I'll try calling Captain Bill before leaving the dock, just to confirm my towboat reservation in advance.