Broken Fuel Line

This morning we got all hopped up on some awesome italian roast coffee and then drove down to the sailboat. We had a nice exit from the slip and headed out under sunny skies with breezy conditions. It was sustaining about 13 mph (about 4 on the beaufort scale) and gusting to 16 or so. We headed up northerly towards Portman Marina and turned after 3 miles distance covered in about an hour. Heading back south, we ran into a lot of other sailboats out enjoying the windy day and had to keep our wits about us to avoid collisions. Click here for a video. Around 3:30pm we decided to head back into port but quickly discovered the fuel line for the outboard motor had broken and there was no way to fix it. We called into the marina and they had someone come out and meet us after we dropped anchor just outside the slip area. The sailing community sure is a friendly bunch: a woman from the shore was telling me how to drop the anchor, Brian from the marina helped us tie up to a pontoon boat (after trying to tow us into our slip but the wind was too great to overcome), and then Cork and Martha and their dog Luke met us with wine and beer to help calm our nerves. Any day that ends without human or material damage is a fine day by me! The marina owner has ordered us replacement parts and her crew will be towing our boat into its slip tomorrow. Hopefully all goes well and we can sail again soon.