Finally.

Blind Bay peace

It's later than many years, but we are, finally, off the dock.  I am typing this at anchor in Blind Bay, one of our favorite anchorages.  It is another wonderful, sunny, quiet day here.  In order to get here tho, this list had to be accomplished:

• Change the oil in the main engine
• Change the pencil zinc in the main engine heat exchanger
• Change the oil in the genset
• Top up the water in the batteries
• Locate, acquire and install a replacement fitting for the main engine expansion tank.  It seems like most years there is a major winter project - this was this year's.
• Dive on the prop and clean it; change the prop nut zinc
• Clean up the dinghy from the winter
• Clean up the boat from the winter
• Remove and store the extra "winter" fenders and lines that we install to weather the winter storms
• Fill the water tanks (300 gal)
• Check the fuel (we're good - both are half full)
• Test the anchor windlass
• Check the dinghy motor fuel
• Reinstall and test the dinghy motor

Oops... Tho we had all winter to do it...

Typically, we remove the dinghy outboard and store it in my shop over the winter.  And then getting ready for the season, I clean it up, paint the rusty spots and test run it.  But this season?  Well, I never seem to have gotten around to taking the motor home.

When I tried to start the dinghy outboard, it was dead.  A preliminary investigation showed that there was no spark.  Installing a new spark plug didn't fix it, leading to pretty much the only other likely conclusion: the points in the magneto are fouled.  To get at them, the flywheel must be removed.  Tho I have a lot of tools aboard, I don't have what it would take to do that.

So: decision time... do we go even tho we don't have a functioning motor on the dinghy?  Well of course!

So here we are, peacefully at anchor, with a rowing dinghy!  And tomorrow we will fulfill our annual tradition of listening to the Indy 500 at anchor.

Finally.