Towed All The Way Home! 

I find Captain Christa refreshing, honest, and given the gift of an abundance of common sense and a great smile. I enjoy watching her travels through the start of her life. Wishing her all the best in her years to come.

Even on the Great Lakes (Erie) I never leave the dock without my Towboat/US coverage. Luckily, knock on wood, I have never had to use the coverage in all my years of boating. I love to watch these Captains bring boats in because most of them are so skilled at bringing a boat in and then putting the boat into their dock. They make it look so easy which shows how much skill they have.

Quite the unplanned adventure! Nice tow-guy, too, no grumpy Mr. NoWord ^^

Aye Aye cappen tis a sorry state you was in, but thankfully Neptune was on ya side & the crisis was everted & yee was rescued from a fate of unknown perils .. wow such a simple fix in the end which is a good thing .glad your ok and didn't end up in a shallowy grave apon the rocks..t.c xx

Glad you got back safe. I spent a few years working at a marina putting boats in slips.Rescues not too far out. It can be tricky. It's more of an art than most people realize, especially in crappy weather. It's not necessary or even expected but just so you know those guys take on a lot of responsibility and don't get paid a whole lot most of the time. It isn't always as easy as your situation was. Sometimes it's way more of a nightmare. People taking on water, crappy boats hard to tow because stuff can break, etc. Maybe keep a $20 bill on your boat so you can tip them at the end. Like I said, it isn't expected but I know it always made my day when someone did. Even $10 to cover a 6-pack after I got off work. You'll get a big smile. No matter how crazy expensive the tow was, that guy wasn't getting any of it. The tow company did.

Hi Christa .... that is my biggest fear, losing my engine out on the water. Glad to see it all worked out for you. I noticed your video is from November.... In Canada my boat would be hauled out of the water and be sitting on the hard by then.

All's well that ends well and you learned some things and now move forward with your next adventure! Thats what its all about. Excellent job documenting everything too!

Christa, wear a life jacket! I like you sail alone, but I have a life jacket on, put one on girl! Enjoying your channel BTW.

Hi christa, sorry about your luck, that would be my luck also, your boat dies and the tow boat runs outa fuel, it's all a learning experience and you just never no whats going to break next over time, but have fun , God bless

Awesome, at least there wasn't any need for new batteries. Thanks for sharing the tow experience. Can happen to any of us.

They say that if life gives you lemons, make lemonade. You must make some damn good lemonade. You can take having dead batteries and needing to be towed and make it feel like it's a ride in an amusement park. I wouldn't have been so upbeat. 🙂 Thanks for bringing a litte west coast sunshine into our home.

What a bummer! Glad to see you got help.

I had to smile about your towboat experience as it resonated with me from a recent experience. My friend sold his yacht and bought a motorboat; we had been out about 6 times and suspected the that the fuel gauge wasn't accurate and the inevitable happened we conked out - no fuel and a strong tide so we threw the anchor out immediately. Then a police patrol passed way off and we tried to attract their attention but to no avail. I tried calling the coastguard but there was no reception as we were in a dead area so we dialled 999 on the cell phone and spoke to the coastguard who put out a general pan pan call which the same police boat picked up just as they were entering the marina ; so they turned around and picked us up with a nice tow home! Such a relief!

Great job in a new and kinda scary situation getting into that slip!

I love your boat it a beautiful boat like it's your owner..

Hi Christa! Sorry for your battery problems- I think you should consider putting a low battery alarm on that is set well above the fail voltage so you can get a warning earlier. Best wishes and I hope it is an easy fix. If you can afford it maybe switch to lLi-Po batteries and get a smart alternator to charge them properly. In any event best wishes 🎉

How exciting was that!! Love that he ran out of fuel lol

Great video, perhaps considering a Rainier generator for battery charging.

Thanks for posting this. I called for a tow but the tow boat was 2 hours away. I was grounded less than a mile from my slip. the connecting channel is narrow and shallow so cannot get in or out 2 hours either side of low tide. BUT nice guy came by, we hooked my spinnaker halyard to his boat and drove perpendicular away. Pulled me over about 45 degrees, I gave the engine the gun and scooted off the sand. I went right back to my slip at now low tide with my fingers crossed. You did well. Thanks again.

Hopefully you got your boat fixed. Do you ever do a video of your monthly cost to l live aboard full time I enjoy your adventures 🙏🏼❤️🤙🏼

Take care sis ♥️🌹♥️

That"s quite an adventure you had there! Love your channel, keep up the good work. Glad you and your cute pups made it back safe.

I glad you okay ...

You’d be perfect to crew with. You know what you’re doing, handle adversity great, and have fun conversations.😂 Haven’t seen a video for 5 months, hope you’re ok.

is the tow guy like your type of dude..like with a badd azz tow boat..comes to rescue you...he was all smiles..lol..you need a tool called a power probe..google it..super easy to use...it has a led screen for info and also beeps..its to test for power or ground but you can also add power,,super handy once you learn who to use it...anyways ..godspeed..godbless.. love the flying puppys when they go for a swim..lol..

If your engine is an inboard diesel with a mechanical fuel pump and that’s the normal sort then the Diesel engine does not use any battery power to run, unlike a petrol engine which won’t work without electricity. However your instruments need electricity. So if you can sail using a gps plotter on your phone or tablet and a compass and paper charts you should be able to get by without a tow if you can get the engine jump started. However you can’t turn the engine off again until you are safely back in the slip but doing that will not run your battery flat because the engine should run fine without electricity. Good luck with getting it all fixed. The previous owner of my boat never put any screws back in. So I had to find and replace all the missing screws and also missing wires too. I am still finding them.

Wow! You lucked out it wasn’t bad, awsome video. Be safe out there! Aloha from Kauai!

You need a bracket to put a outboard motor on the back of your boat just incase your main engine fails 💯👍

Love your positive attitude

You handle that well..

I see this was four months ago but I’ll share a little information for future reference. Dead batteries happen for one or more of the following reasons: 1. Poor / loose / corroded connections at the battery, alternator, at a fuse or breaker box, or a ground to the engine. 2. Dry cells, this can happen even on “maintenance free” lead-acid batteries. 3. Blown fuse or tripped breaker. 4. Bad alternator. 5. Bad equipment between the batteries and solar panels causing constant battery drainage. 6. Equipment left on for too long without charging batteries.

I suggest installing a volt meter so you can monitor the charging system when the engine is running. Also I'd do some shopping for spare parts like belts, hoses, impeller, water pump, and alternator, etc. just in case of a failure, along with the necessary tools to work on the engine. Good on you for having tow insurance, that tow alone would have really cost you if you had to pay out of pocket. Unfortunate the wire from the alternator was not properly hooked up, or this wouldn't have happened.

Nice 👍

Glad you doing good and you got help

I hope the tow charge wasn't too bad... thanks for posting. Really enjoy your work.

It never occured to me that an inboard needs batteries to start it. I've only every had outboards. I was wondering why you didn't just crank the motor on? lol. Also, its amazing he towed you to your home port and not the nearest marina. glad everything worked out. good video!

Christa love your videos! I hope your alternator is working now, thank goodness it didn't fry your alternator you're never supposed to run an alternator without a load, and do you only have one battery on your boat!? Personally i would Never leave the marina with a non-working alternator, it is very important to have a working alternator to fast charge your batteries when needed. Also, if you only have one battery then I highly suggest you add 1 or 2 more to your bank, and use your A-B switch to only run one battery at a time while always keeping one battery full for starting your engine then while running your engine move your A-B switch to both batteries to charge them both fully. Also, if you have a diesel NEVER run your engine above idle longer than a few seconds without a load, you will eventually ruin your connecting rob bearings thus destroying your engine. I also highly suggest you buy a spare battery to stow away for emergencies, throw it on a trickle charger once a month to maintain it, if all your bank batteries are dead you can quickly swap one out for your spare battery so you can start your engine and charge your dead batteries. And it may sound silly, but I always carry two heavy duty 25 foot car jumper cables onboard, if my batteries are dead I can ask someone for a jumpstart. We have two generators onboard, Harbor Freight Predator 2000 and Predator 3500 watt, because in summer we run a Samsung 12000 btu air conditioner and in winter we run a 1500 watt floor heater in the Salon and a 350 watt heater in the V-Berth, the 3500 watt generator runs 20-24 hours on 5 gallons gasoline and the 2000 watt generator runs 20-24 hours on 3 gallons. Since we have the generators, I keep a car battery charger (also Harbor Freight brand) onboard for charging our batteries when they get really low, which happens often because we use a LOT of electricity. We have a 1978 Newport 30, 30' LOA and 10.75' BEAM, very roomy and wide for a 30 foot we have a cabin size more comparable to a 37 foot. Power use we have a 4.4 cubic foot front opening fridge (Arctic King from Home Depot), 800 watt Walmart microwave, 12000 BTU Aircon, 1850 watts of electric heaters, 3.2 GPM Propane tankless water heater (uses electric for LED display panel and electric start/fan), 500 watt stereo system with 12" subwoofer, 32" Samsung TV, around 1200 RGB LEDs on light strips (600 in cabin hidden under trim, 600 purple Christmas LED lights occasionally hoisted up the mast from bow to stern) and all the cabin lights have been converted to 5k bright white LED. I also bring 4 tool bags filled with enough tools to rebuild an engine and electrical testers such as multimeters amp meters wire toner soldering gun and mini butane torch with soldering attachments (handy where there is no power or risk of electrocution from water presence).

I used to sail out of Dana Point at Aventura Sailing. Have not been able to do it since the birth of y 4 year old daughter. So Jealous ;). Not the towing part lol.

This video was strangly devoid of delicious food but was very informative.

Hi. Another first :). Made for great content. Thank you.

I wanted to tell you a lot of diesel engines will run without electricity. If they have a mechanical fuel pump and are already running them generally the engine will just stay on. Now...some engines have an electric fuel pump and or an engine driven mechanical one. My Catalina has an electric and a mechanical one. Now I'm not sure what would happen on mine if the electric one cut out. Technically the mechanical one would probably maintain some fuel pressure. Now an electrical fuel pump would certainly drain your battery, but things such as navigation equipment or navigation lights might be a bigger drain on the battery. Though overall a diesel engine doesn't typically need electricity one e it starts, it isn't like a gasoline engine that has spark plugs and needs electricity to spark/combust the fuel.

Out of curiosity was the tow boat membership worth it? Did this one tow pay for your membership? Also were you able to salvage the batteries or did they get scrapped

Wow, showing how towing works, very helpful. Q: how much did it cost?

A tip would have been nice for the guy!

♥️♥️🥰🥰

Ouch, that oversight of a 30 second job lead to what I am assuming was an expensive ride home.

🇹🇷👍👍👍

Please show the starting of engine

How much did they charge? In the Netherlands it can be $3000 to $6000, crazy. But we also KNRM is free of charge, all volunteers and running on gifts. Take a note in case you come here one day 😉

12.65v is a full charge. After you take the surface charge off the previous . 12.45 volts is 3/4 charge. 12.25 volts is 1/2 charge. Do you have a multimeter to test your electrical connections using a voltage drop test. Harbor freight has a 11 function centech $22.99 multimeter. They also have a $20 buck 30 foot test lead set. Because i dont know how far the batteries are from the engine. Keep both in a gallon sized ziplock bag to keep sea moisture from destroying them. Test the batteries at 20 volt dc scale . With the batteries close to a full charge. Engine running. At a fast idle. You should have 14.1 to 14.8 volts. Next. Test from the alternator output stud threads to the positive battery. You should not have more than 0.3 volts. Ill explain why in a minute. Test from the alternator housing to the negative battery post... The battery post is the thick lead stud sticking up. Not the battery terminal around it. Why would 0.3 volts be a good reading. We are measuring the difference in voltage between the two test locations. Copper wire is not a perfect conductor. So electrons going thru the wire are not flowing without some resistance. If you have more that 0.3 volts. Narrow the test locations. There is more. The best alternator rebuilder i know of is called rotex. They are on western ave just north of rosecrans on the east side of the street. I spent 22 years working on a old power boat for a friend over in long beach marina and neumarks in la harbor.

Might have been cheaper to replace the alternator then get towed

Darlin that 2GM motor does not need any electricity to run. To start it yes but just running it is a "old school" diesel so no spark required and the fuel lift pump and injection pumps are mechanical. There is also (I am pretty sure) a way to hand crank the motor to start it.

Lol the towboat needs a tow boat.

Your boat has sails. You could have sailed back.⛵

I didn't think a diesel would need power to operate once it's running?

Always carry a spare fully charged Bat... and jumpers

Do you have an amp meter to make sure your battery is charging when it is supposed to? Like the the amps going in start climbing if your alternator worked?

Hi just joined your channel can you tell subscribers what is on our arm isn’t some sort of medical device Thx

Get a 2000 watt firmman generator , charge batteries when ever were ever, never run batteries below 12 volts unless lithium, yep live and learn, good luck

Okay we're all curious how much did the tow cost

Life jacket please

How much they charge u for this

Is the tow free or do you need to pay?

How much was the tow? So curious!

Good video, but barefoot on a boat is never a good idea. Happy sailing.

How much was that tow?

Buy generator on sale

My boat does 40 knots

How much did it cost you to get towed back home?

👍🎣🤿⛵🏖️⛱️💯

Why not get a water/wind turbine?

This tow must of cost you a bunch.

I know shit happens but embarrassing non the less. What would "Wind Hippie Sailing" done?

She seams like a poor little rich kid ! 7:39

Captain Christa, pls wear a life jacket!! Nobody looks good in a body bag.

What went wrong is you have no clue how your boat works! Buying and living on the boat is not like renting an apartment. You have to know how your boat works. Also the reason he is going back and forth is due to the fact that you are not steering your boat to stay behind him! A cute girl may get views here but you have NO CLUE what is happening on your boat!