A couple of nights ago I was fishing sturgeon on the St Croix and listening to the Twins win a great game. It was one of those cloudy, cool, crisp fall evenings. About 10:00pm I decided it was time to head home, most everybody else had already left. I stowed my gear, pulled the anchor, sat down and turned the ignition switch and got a short grunt out of the engine and clunk – a dead starter battery. 
I sat there for a minute trying to figure how I was going to handle that situation. Then I remembered stowing a pair of jumper cables in my front storage compartment early in the spring. I almost forgot I had them. I dug them out of the storage compartment, 12 foot jumper cables still rolled nice and tight and stored in their small storage bag. I hooked them up to my front trolling motor battery, did a quick connect to the starter battery and SHAZAAM – the motor started right up. 
If you don’t have a pair of jumper cables stored in your boat this might be a good time to add them to your list of things to add to the boat. Make sure you get some long enough to reach from your trolling motor battery to your starter battery. It is better to have them and not need them than to need them and not have them. They sure worked out great that night. Go Twins.
By the way – I took the battery in and had it checked and it was dead. I just picked up a new battery at WalMart and I am back in business. I rolled up the jumper cables and stored them right back in the front storage compartment – never can tell when I might need them again. 
