Retirement Surprises in Kingston (#11)

On Ted's last day on Active Duty, we were on our boat going by West Point for the first time. It was kind of surreal since he started his service in the Navy, and actually had never been to West Point. (Still on our list to do a tour!) This was a great picture to commemorate his last day as Active Duty Military.

We left at 6am so that we could arrive at Kingston to do the required military healthcare signup. Apparently, you must make the call on your last day of service. So, at 2pm we call Tricare to select our Tricare Select military coverage, and they told us we would be starting on June 2nd! Then the bigger question came to determine what about June 1st? Whoever entered the date into DEERS made a mistake, so we had to be on the phone with DEERS. As long as we didn't have any medical issue on June 1st, we should be fine! We spend another 30 minutes on the phone with DEERs requesting support to make sure that this could be changed in case we have a medical issue on June 1st.

When we arrived at Kingston, we needed gas and a pumpout. We did our fuel calculation, but our fuel guage seems to say we have less fuel than we actually do. Even with subtracting gallons to add, we overflowed the port side fuel tank. Because you fill on the same side, the port side has a longer hose to transport fuel to the other side of the boat.

After we finished our Tricare work, we noticed we had a slight smell of fuel in the boat. We knew we had overfilled to port side, but the smell was unusual. We kept the blowers for a few minutes on and it lessened. We went to take our dinghy to return a lost fender we were transporting from Half Moon Bay to Looper friends who were now staying across the rive in Kingston. We had a lovely dinner with them and then returned to the boat. We had turned the blowers off and when we returned to the boat there was an very strong smell of fuel.

Ted went to look for the problem, and I immediately called our mechanic (and "cousin" we call him) Matt Angle. He calmly talked to Ted as they looked to diagnose the problem. They thought it might be the gasket for the fuel level sending unit, and then Matt talked to Laura and tried to explain that this was a fuel overflow issue and not an issue we should be concerned about. He continued to try to calm Laura's nerves, and then Ted came back to get the phone aying that wasn't the issue, it was a different more obvious problem. Fuel was leaking from the port side vent hose. He took the phone with Matt back (Laura's far off the boat), and Laura realizes we need to find a place to stay.

We have just arrived at a new marina and we don't have an after hours number. Unlike the last marina stop where we wer in constant communication with the dockmaster, we don't know who to call. Also, it's on a Saturday night at 10:30pm. Laura calls our daughter, and she and her boyfriend help find us a place to stay. Laura is a bit frazzled and not thinking clearly. We discover the hotels are extremely expensive. Her boyfriend calls one hotel to negotiate a one night deal (did I mention he's a fabulous lawyer?). They secure us a location but the catch is we have to pick up the key 1/2 a mile away from the motel. It's a place to stay, but we have to figure out how to get there.

We then try to schedule a Lyft at 11:10pm in a remote area to drive 30 minutes away to another more remote location. Our first Lyft driver cancels immediately and a new one is assigned. Laura immediately calls him to develop a relationship, so he doesn't cancel and "Vic" becomes our new best friend. We explain to Vic that we need him to take us to the location where we pick up a key, and then drive us an additional .5 mile to our actual hotel. He agrees and we are relieved. We ask Vic if we could get his phone number and if he could pick us up at 9am and take us back to the marina.

We arrive at our hotel that has two beds, but isn't going to be a place we want to stay more than one night. The next morning we make a trek to the breakfast (1/2 mile away) on the slim shoulder of a narrow road. Ted is carrying two of my evacuation bags with his backpag, and I'm carrying a bag as well. We don't know where we are going to stay the next night and my job for the day will be to find a new home for us while Ted looks into our repair. Ted starts chuckling and says "this isn't how I imagined my first day of retirement" - and we chuckled about being a homeless veteran without medical insurance...

The next morning we try to book a Lyft - and it's $95. We call Vic and he says it will be about 30 minutes. We gladly wait knowing he will take us to the marina and to pick up our Enterprise rental car.

Ted was able to drain about two gallons of fuel and replace the hose that had wore out with time and also was probably too tightly kinked on June 1st - the day without medical insurance. The marina was of great assistance when we saw them the next day. Ted spent 5 hours watching fuel drip out of the leaky hose because there was no way to drain the tank. After his thorough cleaning, within the two days the smell dissipated completely.

Drip excess gas before replacing the hose.

Before fix.

After successful replacement.

Entertainment

As we were fixing the boat, two Gold Loopers (completed the Loop once) pulled in the dock in front and behind us. We had wonderful Docktails with them and learned more insights about the Erie canal and the rest of the Loop. We also arranged to coordinate dropping off our Enterprise car with picking up their Enterprise car so we didn't need to bother Vic.

We dined once at the restaurant and collected ourselves for a day before we left for our next stop. There was a lot we could have done in Kingston, but it was time to move on.

Our first night we were able to stop here and tie up our dinghy on our SeaQuel while we all went out to dinner.

Rondout Marina

Review

Pros: Nice staff, Close to Kingston by dinghy, Restaurant on site, Fuel and pumpout easy

Cons: Hard to get transportation, Dryer wasn't working, Roads didn't have shoulder to walk on

Rate: 4 stars