The timing was almost perfect. We received a call from the marina telling us that a large box had arrived…the new outboard was finally here! The only problem was that it had been raining for the last 20 hours with no relief in sight. I didn’t care, I needed that outboard. So, on with the foul weather gear and into the dinghy I went. I fought with the old outboard and coaxed it to life (yet again) but I think that the old outboard knew this would be its last round trip for it didn't start easy and protested a lot on the way in.
In the rain, I walked up to the service station for gas and back to the marina where I unpacked the new outboard only to find there was no owner’s manual! A quick call and a promised to send it in tomorrow’s mail was secured. Then, in the rain, I carried my new motor down the docks and laid it into the bottom of the dinghy. With one pull, I started the old 12lb beast for its last trip to the boat! It ran all of 15 seconds before dying and no matter what I did it wouldn’t start again. In the end, I had to row the new motor over a 1/3 of a mile out to the boat… in the rain, against the wind. Afterwards, with a little bit of oil and gas the new outboard started right up and ran great! I think though, the old outboard got the last laugh.
Are you going to keep it as the EMERGENCY BACKUP motor/anchor ?
ReplyDeleteis that a two-stroke?
ReplyDeleteAnna wants to keep it but I want to use it as an anchor.
ReplyDeleteIt's a 2 stroke and to give you some kind of an idea of how loud it was, my nick name was "chain saw man".
I just noticed the padlock in the picture, if you make the boat look abandoned someone might think the outboard has some value and remove it for you.
ReplyDeleteI know that we were shocked when you went by with the new dinghy/new motor combo, quietly sneaking about the harbor in stealth mode!!! 'Chain Saw Man' was a great nickname! We all have one, you know, especially the longer those barnacles act like velcro in Boot Key!
ReplyDelete