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Saturday morning and we left Ft Pierce marina at high tide heading for an anchorage 40 mile north, wind was gusting to 25 knots but it was bright and sunny.  We planned a brief stop at Vero Beach City Marina (15 miles north) to pick up a spare engine part we had ordered, and to top up both diesel tanks while we were there, even though both gauges showed half full…..  

One mile south of the marina, and a couple hundred feet before the 17th Street bridge (see map) in Vero Beach the engine spluttered to a halt. We looked at each other in panic, more f#$@*!g engine trouble?  Dickie sprinted to towards the bow and threw in our main anchor and the spare to stop Harmony drifting out of the ICW channel and into the shallower water on either side.  I stayed at the helm and called US Boat for a tow, gave them our position, and we put on life jackets. They said the tow would be about 40 minutes!  The wind blew in powerful gusts  and we could tell we were slowly drifting into shallower waters;  the depth sounder excrutiatingly counted down from 4 feet to 3 to 2 and finally (when you know you are in real trouble) "—" shows on the screen and just after that Harmony touched bottom.  Dickie threw our third and final anchor off the port side and we waited, and prayed for the wind to die down (it didn’t) and for the anchors to hold (they did), and for the tow guy to arrive QUICK (quick enough as it turned out but it felt like FOREVER).  And so we were towed AGAIN, twice in a week, how embarrassing. We were even more humiliated when we realized it was not engine trouble at all. Upon filling up with diesel the main 24 gallon tank took, wait for it, 24 gallons.  Oh yes, and the spare tank still had diesel!  

We have eaten lots of humble pie these last few days, everyone we meet says never trust your fuel gauges, and now we wont….

 Also wish I hadn’t started this blog!!!