WILMINGTON, N.C. — The Colonial Pipeline has now returned operations to normal, but for one Marina in Wilmington, normal is still about a week away.
Wilmington Marine Center Manager Michael Loch said that they won’t be receiving fuel from their supplier for seven to 10 days. With no fuel coming in, they’ve decided to cease fuel sales.
Loch said that some smaller boats with some leftover fuel in them can still go out for a quick trip, but larger boats may want to be on the side of caution.
“The larger boats with multiple, triple and quad outboards, they’re a little on the thirsty side,” said Loch, “They can gobble up quite a bit of fuel in the course of an hour.”
The fuel shortage isn’t just impacting those looking to get out on the water, it’s impacting the marina as a business as well.
“We could be selling anywhere from a thousand to two thousand gallons combined between gas a diesel a week,” said Loch. “This week, we’re down to basically nothing and obviously that’s a big impact on the bottom line.”
Even still, he’s hopeful that things may look different next week.
“Well I’m actually hoping that that seven to ten days is worst case scenario,” said Loch, “I’ll be contacting our fuel supplier on Monday just to see if anything has opened up to the point where maybe we can expect fuel in three to four days, but right now that’s what we’re looking at, Monday may be a different story.”
And while he waits, Loch, like so many others navigating their way through the shortage, is trying to stay positive.
“Well I wish I was out boating, especially on a nice weather day,” said Loch, “But it is what it is, it’ll get better.”
According to the Colonial Pipeline’s Twitter account, they’re now delivering millions of gallons of fuel to the markets they serve, which includes North Carolina.