The interesting part was that the lights were still on. Usually, with a storm like this, the power gets knocked out for days, and other parts of Richmond did lose power. But there at the marina, the lights were still on, the air conditioners were running and the soda machine at the ship's store was still doing its impression of an unbalanced washing machine. It was this fact that made us stop at the parking lot, rather than rushing down to make sure everything was all right on board.

Several of the marina occupants were clustered in a small group near the steps down to the slips. We wandered over and listened in on the conversation. The subject of discussion was the coming high tide. Several of the large power cruisers in the covered slips had reached the rafters on the last high tide and the next was projected to be even higher. The owners of the large boats and the marina personnel were discussing how to move the boats around on the uncovered slips to keep the roofs and the boats from meeting.

During a convenient break in the conversation, I asked about the electricity and was assured that it was on. I explained that I could tell it was on, what I was concerned about was whether wandering through the water with the power on was a good idea. On this point, opinion diverged. Some of the braver souls felt that there was a possibility of getting shocked, but as long as you stayed away from the actual connections, you should be OK. Others were of the opinion that, since this was fresh water, there was no danger at all. A small group was unsure of the danger, but assured us that they would be happy to watch us go down to the boat. If something were to go wrong, they would be sure to call the local rescue squad for us.

Thinking back to stories I had read about people getting electrocuted while swimming in marinas, I remembered that people who had survived always said that they felt a tingling in their skin before they had suffered any ill effects. Watching the river go by, I decided that the current wasn't enough to knock me off my feet and I should be able to make it to the boat without trouble. If I felt tingling at any point, I would turn around, come back to the car and figure out Plan B. Suzanne convinced me to slip into an inflatable PFD I had in the car and, while I was there, I grabbed a coil of thin line I had stashed for some reason.

We walked down to the lowest portion of the pier not under water and I tied off my line to a piling. Kissing Suzanne, I stepped down into the warm, muddy water.

THE ELECTRIC SLIDEFRANK MUMMERTAs the sun comes out, boat owners and marina employees shift the large power cruisers to uncovered slips in anticipation of the next high tide.

I resisted the natural urge to pretend I was being electrocuted, reasoning, correctly, that Suzanne would not find this particular joke funny. I might have survived the electricity only to be drowned as she held my head underwater. I edged out into the water, careful to stay in the center where I knew the pier had to be and feeling carefully for each step, aware that a loose dock board could have lifted in the flood and headed down river. My coil of line ran out four feet from the stern of my boat.

Letting go, I cautiously tracked the last couple of steps and reached out for the swim ladder. I loosened the line that held the bottom half of the ladder up and the rungs swung down into position. The bottom rung was still a foot above the dock, deep in the brown water, but I was able to find it and scrambled up onto the deck. I waved back up at Suzanne.

She started down to join me, but I waved her back. I went forward and found the painter to our inflatable dinghy, tied off to our bow. I walked the dinghy back to the stern and tied it off to the swim platform. I then grabbed a length of dock line from the lazarette and tied it off to the stern rail. I tossed the other end in the dinghy.

I stepped back in the water, still careful to make sure I felt for every step. I grabbed the painter for the dinghy and tied it off to my wrist. I then headed back up the pier, towing the dinghy behind me. When I got to the end of the line I had left in the water, I picked it out of the water and tied it and the line I had tied to the boat together.