I AM Rich Gano!
So back in 2006 when we were up the Tennessee River around Huntsville,
a fellow Trawler email List member heard me calling to the marina on the radio using
the Calypso’s call. It was mike Sullivan
and wife Pat who quickly retrieved their anchor and came into the marina to
meet us. We had a nice visit and invited
them over for waffles the next morning – it was our only face-to-face meeting. They were completely enamored of our small
waffle maker that we gave them a spare one we just happened to have
aboard. Over the years since, on the odd
occasion we email each other directly, one or the other of us asks how the
waffles are. Mike got wind of our being
in this area and said he would be rolling by here delivering his new-to-him
boat to Knoxville. He was not planning
on stopping here because he needed to get his crewman back to work on Monday
and needed to make a lot of time.
Today, I was sitting in the marina office to get some decent wifi,
and some boat called in with an engine casualty and said he was coming in on
one engine. I did not hear all the radio
conversation, but the marina staff were concerned about the boat making it into
a safe landing in part because they were understaffed. I volunteered to help out over at a nice long
easy-to-approach pier across from where Pathfinder is moored. One other dockhand and I helped the boat get
moored, and I hung around to chat with the owner about his engine woes but
never aw the name of the boat on the stern.
I ended up down in the engine room looking around for him and found the
trouble was water in his fuel as evidenced by Racor filter bowls o that engine
being full of water. At one point as I
was dispensing invaluable advice I felt it incumbent on me to mention that I did
not work for the marina and that I was just passing through taking this trawler
to Lake Michigan. At this point, the
owner said, “Are you with Rich Gano?” to which I replied, “I AM Rich Gano!” Mike Sullivan and I just did not recognize
each other after a one day acquaintance 11 years ago!
Mary and I checked out the marina van and took Mike and his
crewman to dinner. Poor Mile is going to
have to leave the boat here and go home and handle the dewatering of his fuel
system by the boat works here at long distance.
