Outboard Woes

This week has been an eventful one. Our outboard decided to go tits up this week and just stop working completely. Although Brad gave it his best shot, we couldn't figure out the problem.

Hoisting the outboard up on the mothership with the cowling off is like waving the white flag.

Since we are on a mooring ball a mile from the dinghy dock, that was a bit problematic. We tried rowing in, to the great amusement of all of our boat neighbors. This was largely unsuccessful in the strong winds and after going in circles for a bit tied along with a few expletives thrown between myself and Brad, some of them offered to tow us in. Thus started the three day hell of having to rely on our neighbors for rides and tows, as well as outboard repair assistance. Everyone was very obliging, but it is taxing on them and us to have to tow another dinghy a mile. We had a line of people offer to come over and look at our outboard to see if they could impart some wisdom and every one of them went away just as perplexed as we were. So, while we learned this was the quickest way to meet our "neighborhood", we realized they would soon tire of us and thus we found ourselves in the market for a new outboard....as it were.

As luck would have it, there was indeed one outboard available on craigslist in Marathon. We have been lucky enough to befriend a young couple here with a car and so he and Brad drove out to put it through the paces. After a bit of haggling and some test drives, they decided it would do and we found ourselves the proud owners of a "brand new" Suzuki 15hp!! It is a 2010, which is the newest anything we have ever owned and it is a gem! It starts on the first pull and idles quiet as a mouse; and even I can work it!!!

When we returned with the outboard out to our neck of the mooring field, we were greeted by applause and laughter from our neighbors, who were obviously relieved not to have to tow us around anymore. While this outboard was certainly not in the budget, we are glad that if we had to have an outboard issue, it was here in the harbour. We were able to find a relatively quick solution, thanks to the generosity of the boaters.

So, now, with our new outboard in hand, we are waiting on weather....the story of our lives. But, while waiting, we have been reunited with some boating buddies we met down in the Exumas. They are also waiting for weather and it seems that we will all be making the crossing at about the same time. In the meantime, I'm sure there will be lots of rum consumption, good laughs and volleyball games for all. All in all, there are worse places to be "stuck"...