EAST LYME — - The next time you feel like complaining about what it costs to fill your gas tank, consider the situation of Ken and Wendy Pratt.
The Pratts, retired employees of United Technologies, spend their winters in Middletown, but their home away from home during the summer months is a 33-foot Grady-White cabin cruiser, the Wenweken III, rocking in its slip at the Boats Inc. marina looking out on Niantic Bay.
The Wenweken III, as Ken Pratt will proudly tell you, is "outfitted to the max," with GPS navigation, satellite weather, outriggers for eight fish lines, cable TV, surround-sound stereo, a full galley and bath. The Pratts love to entertain their 14 grandchildren on the boat, motor across Long Island Sound for lunch, or overnight on fishing junkets 100 miles out to sea along the Gulf Stream.
But there's a major cost issue during this year of ascending gasoline prices and growing concern about global oil supplies. Marine gas generally sells at 50 to 75 cents a gallon over auto fuel, and last week, as the Memorial Day weekend approached, fuel was already selling at $4.66 a gallon on the East Lyme docks. By the height of the power boating season in July, the Pratts and their marina friends expect to pay $5 or more a gallon for fuel.
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