Hello, I thought I'd share our sailing story with the group. About 3 years ago we had been boat owners for about 2 weeks (Catalina22). We'd learned to sail and were enjoying a great time in our new boat. Some of the members in our club had told us about a "secret" mooring ball that had placed in a secluded cove. It was a little more than an hour from our dock. I told my wife that we would sail/motor to the mooring ball and have a nice dinner and spend some quality time on our new boat. We left the sailing club about 5 pm with plans to have dinner and return about dusk. Off we go! We sailed for a while but the winds were very light and so on with the motor to our destination. We arrived and tied up to the ball. I fired up the charcoal grill, couple of steaks, bottle of wine, baked spuds, salad, and desert. The weather was warm and the secluded cove was a perfect introduction to sailing life. We finished dinner and begin to head back, with plenty of time time to make it to the dock in the daylight/dusk. On our return trip dusk settles over the lake, the weather is perfect and we chug along under power headed back. I go below and turn on the navigation lights. Red, green, and white we're under power at night all the lights are functioning. The previous ownwer had told me that the battery was nearly new and with the small solar panel it was always charged. So I was very surprised when the light suddenly dimmed and nearly went out! Dead battery! Oh no.. get the flashlight. So I taped the "really cheap" flashlight to the stern rail and we continued. Rather quickly, it became very dark. There was little or no ambient light, no moon and the stars were obscured by the blanket of clouds that had rolled in blanketing the lake. We continued to motor along thinking we were on the right course for our sail club. Missed the cove.. now were motoring dead slow around a cove we've never been in... we are barely able to make out the edges of the inland lake. We continue.. good thing we have plenty of gasoline. It's now 10:00 pm our return trip which should have been less than hour is now over two hours. We keep motoring along thinking things will begin to look familar... no luck... the lake looks the same everywhere and we are hopelessly lost. VHF.. no battery power to call for help... Cell phones work.. but we don't know anyone to call.... Using the process of elimination, we scour each cove on the lake until... yes.. we find our home port... we are finally home! My wife with the small penlight on the bow guides me into the slip. Whew! It's now 11:30 at night. What an inital experience. I bought a hand-held gps and a new battery the next day! We were never really in any danger. We had enough fuel to motor all night if we needed to... Well, that's our funny sailing story. Mike and Robin now sailing a Hunter 34