Back in Bimini Again

Today was not so great.  I started out by sleeping in until 9:00AM.  It was great.  BJ burnt me ….ahemm made be breakfast to start the day.  The plan was to cleand the dinghy (dink) make sure it runs, and change the chock placement on the swim platform.  We almost lost it coming across.

So let’s see how did this day go…I cleaned the dink.  It looks really good now.  I was excited and ready to go.  I took the engine into Yamaha last winter, so it should be good to go.  I went to offload it from the swim platform, and guess what? It goes up, but not down.  After some troubleshooting, I found a broken wire for the down button.  I fixed it, and wa la it worked.  So I lowered the dink into the drink and tried to start it.

It started eventually and I thought I was home free.  Then it died. I tried and tried but could not get it started.  It had been a while since I ran it, so I removed the carburetor and gave it a good wash.  The tubes for the accelerator pump were clogged and there was a fair amount of debris in the bowl.  For once I had the right tools for the job (experience from the last cruise where the damn thing did not run). I have had it.

I found water in my gas tank so I replaced the gas with the good Bimini gas.  It must be good since it was $4.75/gal. Still no start. so I decided that it must be water in the system and I would just have to flush it out.  I wore through my skin on 3 different fingers on every hand and it is still not flushed out, so I thought I will replace the spark plugs as the last owner left them for me.  They were the wrong kind – one digit off on the part number.  Our slip neighbor Hank suggested I go to the general store which is about the size of our master stateroom (BJ’s comparison but not far off).  Ella actually not only had the spark plug in question, but seemed quite knowledgeable about the use of them. II bought four and changed out the two in the dink.  Still no luck, so there was nothing to do but give up for the night.

I figured a good boat cooked meal would change my attitude, however, when I broke out the new grill that I just bought, the adapter for the propane was not included.  Their advertisement, was no assembly required so I did not think to rummage through the trash to find this piece. I ended up cooking our steaks in a pan, and created a potatoes au gratin lobster Oscar sauce with fresh local lobster. Everything was done on the boat and I really need the grill to work for the rest of the trip.

We are invited to cocktail hour tomorrow in “The Office” which is the boat we were tied up in front of in Savannah.  They are in front of us now.  More to come.  Sorry about no pictures, I am working in it.