Triple A Doesn't Work on the Water!

We have Triple A for on - the - road breakdowns and other maladies that might occur to our automobiles while driving. This gives us peace of mind when traveling.

But while cruising on the waterways in our boat, Triple A is not an option. When we bought the boat, we signed up for towing coverage with a company called Sea Tow. Sea Tow is comprised of a number of operators (or franchisees) in cities and towns along the waterways. These companies operate under the Sea Tow brand with standardized logos and colors on their boats. Sea Tow operators have boats that provide towing services for disabled vessels. They also pull softly grounded boats into deeper water.

Sea Tow has worked fine for us in Florida. It has worked so well that we have not had occasion to use any services, which is the way we want it.

We also have a membership with a boating organization called BoatUS. This is an industry advocate group that for over 45 years, has been delivering time, money and life saving services to recreational boaters from coast to coast. BoatUS lobbies on Capitol Hill, and offers boat insurance, a fleet of tow boats ready to assist, and an interesting boating magazine. We use BoatUS discounts at West Marine and on fuel, and transient slips at marinas where we stay.

Yesterday it occurred to me that maybe I should look at the towing resources along the route that we are taking on our Great Loop Trip. Much to my dismay, Sea Tow, while still in many places on the East Coast and up the Hudson River to Troy, NY, shows no operators for the remainder of the Loop until Mobile, AL. BoatUS has much better coverage, especially between Buffalo, NY and Chicago.

So it looks like I will add BoatUS towing coverage when I renew my membership that expires the end of the month. I also have done a spreadsheet that shows the towing resources and pertinent information geographically as we proceed on the Loop. Before we start, I will also mark the towing resources on our paper charts. I hope we never need these services.

Today was a better day for clearing our Checklist items. The letters for the dinghy arrived this afternoon, and they look good. Replacement foot switches for the anchor windlass on the bow of the boat also arrived today. We will get these installed before we start the trip.

We managed to clear several items off the list by deciding that we did not need to do the items.

I have decided to make one more trip to JAX before we leave on the trip. There are still some things I need to do on the boat, and I want to do some maintenance items with Rodger so that I know how to do them on the trip.
Another week has come and gone. Daylight savings time goes into effect this weekend. Cruising season is almost here!

Thanks for reading!