Well, that was interesting! Managed to make it up there, and had a great time, however we had an interesting journey up there. It's my buddy's boat, so I was merely the first mate on this trip. First thing, his trailer jack broke. Took a while using a bottle jack and some pavers to get the trailer on the truck. Then prepping the boat, I ask him about gas. I bring down some jerry cans and he tops off the tank. I make executive decision to bring the 2 remaining full 5 gal cans. Issue #1. Boat starts losing speed, hard time getting on plane. Open the doghouse, and see the bilge filled with water. Apparently a cooling line quick disconnect had popped off, and water was just dumping into the bilge. Shut down the engine, and it took the pump about 15-20 min to get rid of the water. Get back going, and it isn't running right. So obviously something electrical got wet, right? Didn't see anything obvious, pulled plug wires, tightened grounds, had my buddy top off the gas (said it only took 2-3 gal). It started up and seemed to act normally. Stopped for lunch, 20 mi later and the same thing happens, and won't restart. This time I pull the fuel filter, dump the contents and notice quite a bit of water. Well, that's the problem, right? So put it back on, still no go. Pull the filter again, and...it's totally dry. Hmm. I hear the fuel pump running. Have him put in the rest of can #1. Now filter is full of clean fuel. Keep cranking and it starts. Have him dump the second can in. The fuel gauge needle, which had been pegged on "E", now moves 1/8". Oh, right. Before we leave he says his gas gauge isn't working right, since it was only reading 1/4. I revisit this, and he says that the reason that he knows this is that he adds 10 gallons every weekend. Though he doesn't apparently add enough to fill the tank every weekend, so over the course of the summer...and of course, now we're 20 miles from the nearest marinas, which are now closed on sunday.
Anyway, 2 hours wasted, but I resisted the urge to kill my buddy. Last issue, as we're getting towards alexandria there were some confusing nav aids as we get to national harbor. I'm looking at the charts, realize we're getting into some shallows. Throttle down in 5 ft water, by the time I can slow down we're in 2 ft. Get out of that, go to power up, and the engine just revs. Crap, did I spin the prop hub? DIdn't think I hit anything. No, just a ton of grass around the outdrive and prop. Removed it, kept going. Got into the marina without incident. Had a great night in Alexandria (ended up staying at the municipal docks), dinner/drinks out with some old friends. AM found the nearest marina and added 48 gallons to his 50 gallon tank. Continued up to georgetown and made it home without incident. Overall a fun trip, but if either of our wives found out the details of the trip, pretty sure neither of us would be allowed out of the house again. The trip back took about 2 hours from alexandria, and it was about 45 minutes from georgetown to alexandria. About 150 miles round trip. Ended up stopping at Ricks and Tim's on the way up. All in all, a very cool trip and definitely doable again.