5/22

So AM, after delaying as seemed reasonable, i opened up the engine compartment and dove in, intent to diagnose & repair.

Finding it oily, dirty, & uncertain, i immediately withdrew & called 2 mechanics. Left msgs with both.

1 called back, he was really strange, we werent communicating, and he was booked for the next 3wks.

It was sinking in that i'd have to do this myself.

I am faced with 3 large issues:

• Main engine doesnt start, due to some fuel supply problem.
• Outboard doesnt start, for no apparent reason whatsoever.
• A new 1: i was amazed with this boat that it didnt have water in bilge. It was amazaing dry. At first. OK, out there in the sea, one can expect to accumulate some water. But now i was bilge-pumping-out 2x a day, and all i'm doing is sitting here. I suspect all the miles have opened some seams in/around the out-drive. This isnt a critical problem, but will need attention, and can only be done if it's hauled out. (Duncan had advised that at my halfway point, i get the outdrive oil changed, also requiring haul-out, so these go together. It was just occurring early.)

With regard to the 1st & biggest issue, 2 possibilities were the gas/water-separator filter was bad, and that the gas tank, despite gage claiming 1/2-full, was in fact empty. So i went next-door to Moore's to buy a siphon hose (to move gas from my outboard tank to main) and an oil filter wrench (to change the filter). Ken again was wonderful: he loaned me both! But he warned me i must return both or he'd come looking for me.

"I'll be better off if you just shot me," i admitted.

"OK, but how to dispose the body?"

I motioned to The Sea, only a few steps away.

So i transferred some gas. Since the outboard tank is only ~2.5gal, this required walks uphill to the minimart gas station. The lady who works there is a character, we get along. Today she was training a new employee. I handed the newbee my credit card for gas, the regular woman told her "he's only filling a jerry can."

"You know me so well," i said.

She smiled, "It's like you've been here a long time."

Meanwhile amongst all this i am pulling on my outboard cord to no avail. I'd meant this morn to research outboard motor starting solutions on the internet. My internet is normally via Verizon on my cell phone, but in Canada it's thru other providers who must have some reciprocal deal with Verizon, and it really works good, except i'm limited to 1/2 GB per day, which sounds like plenty, but apparently it's not, since more often than not, late in the day, i get a txt telling me my 1/2gb is gone. Then it gets slower, but it's not just slower, it practically stops.

That happened to me yesterday in midst of my engine trouble research, so i had a list of things i needed to look up for today. First thing this morn I logged-on, read a msg from Duncan, and immediately received a txt telling me i'd used my 1/2gig.

And it wasn't lying about the consequences: the internet stopped.

Cathy, AI, hearing of my dilemma, immediately researched outboard starting issues and sent me truly voluminous information via txtmsg, which was not limited.

Cathy is amazing!

The only suggestion, tho, that seemed mite apply was that the problem with the outboard mite be a faulty kill-switch. When running the outboard, you're supposed to attach a special cord to your own body. If you fall out of your boat, the cord pulls out a safety-thingie on the motor and kills the engine. But if it's faulty, the engine is pre-killed & won't start.

So, desperate, i snipped the kill-wires. I actually thot this would work. It didnt. So i wired them into eachother, bypassing the switch. This also didnt work.

Back to the main engine, Duncan had suggested i try disconnecting the fuel line that comes from the fuel tank and blowing into it. So, no one watching, that's what i did. I could not blow thru it. He tells me this means it's clogged, probably inside the tank. Ken agrees. Ken says unbolt the pipe from the tank, bring it over, he'll blow shit out of it with compressed air. Duncan says if i do that it'll just get clogged again, so get a vacuum thing made for changing oil & suck the shit (and fuel) outa the tank.

I suggest to Ken that my boat issues, this and the leaky outdrive, is a really interesting problem that he should take on. I feel like he almost wants to say yes, but finally, he is really busy and he cant get competent help, all the good ones have gone off to the Coal & Container Ship & other terminals in Prince Rupert. His remaining employees are "useless".


So I paid for another 2 nites here in the marina, bussed to town for dinner cuz i felt need for a break; and i'll deal with it tomorrow.