It’s pitch black out on the Gulf of Mexico. No land or other boats in sight, so we must be pretty far from shore. If this boat has navigation lights like most I’ve been on, they’ve been turned off. I scramble around the little driver’s station and find a flashlight clipped under the dashboard beneath a steering wheel and what I presume are the engine controls. I’ve been on a lot of boats in my job at Woods Hole, but someone else is usually doing all the navigation and steering. The controls aren’t too hard to figure out and the engine seems fine as it continues to throb down below the decks, but what I really want is a radio to call for help. Even if I could somehow get the boat in motion, where would I steer it? I might just cruise around in the dark and run out of fuel or cram the thing
