After the last few days of paddling, I was ready for something different today. Since the new dinghy motor hadn't been run in 3 months, we figured today would be a good day to take that out.
Of course, to use an inflatable dinghy, you have to... yep, inflate it. This is a much lower psi than the paddleboard, and it uses a foot pump... kinda like marching in place for 15 minutes. Nowhere near the workout of inflating the paddleboard.
Joan helped me ease the boat into the water. I tied it off, then brought the motor out to mount it. At the edge of the dock, Joan took over the motor, I got into the dinghy, then she lowered the motor down to me. I snugged it onto the transom. Checked oil. Opened the fuel valve. Opened the fuel vent. Double checked that the runaway key is in place. Pulled out the choke, and pulled the starting cable.
I would like to announce that it fired on the first pull.
Yep, I would really like to announce that. But... it didn't. Not on the second. Or the fifteenth. Or the hundred and forty-seventh. Holy crap, this was WAY more of a workout than messing with a paddleboard! My shoulders were screaming, my arms were like wet noodles.
You are probably thinking I was inventing new swear words. Surprisingly - no. I asked Joan to get us a fresh gallon of gas, while I continued to pull. And pull.
When I put the motor away in January, I drained the carb after running Sta-bil through it. I knew it would going to take a few pulls to get the fuel to the carb, but this was ridiculous.
Shortly after Joan left, the engine sputtered... threatened to run for a few seconds... then died. I had been trying it with the choke in, the choke out, the throttle barely cracked, the throttle half open... but now I knew this thing would fire. Two more pulls, and it popped off with a steady beat.
Success!
Of course, now I was too tired to take the dinghy out. Yeah, I'm kidding. When Joan got back, we put the life-jackets, a throwable cushion, the dinghy bag (waterproof bag with registration, camera, phones, etc), and some water onboard... and shoved off.
I'd like to announce the motor ran like a champ. Really - it did. Joan had dinner in the oven, and this process took longer than planned, so we took a short trip through a few of our canals...
We poked out into the ICW, turned west, and went to the last canal, then back south to get to our canal...
Not a long excursion, but it was fun to be out on the water.
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Before going out to play with the dinghy, Izzy let us know she was ready for a "concert"...
2 comments:
Always good to out on the water
Hi Tim - Yep. Great photos of the kayaks on FB! Water time is good time. :-)
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