Ceilydh Set Sail

Today could have been better.

Diane and Maia both have colds and are consequently whiny. But we headed to town anyway for a short exploration.  As we ran through a patch of garbage with the dinghy I noticed the outboard motor was only peeing a very small amount of water. ( This is the telltale stream of cooling water that shows that the engine is pumping water.

Thinking the intake had caught a plastic bag, I raised the outboard leg and found nothing. So we decided to slowly return to the boat and check it out. Outboard motors don't have overheat alarms and you can wreck them by overheating them.

I pulled the small hose leading to the pee hole and blew through it. No blockage. I lifted the motor on deck and unbolted the lower unit. Impeller looked fine.  Pulled off the intake plastic grills and found nothing.  Get soaked by the first rain we've had in 3+ months.

Visions of some small bit of plastic blocking the cylinder cooling passages made me unbolt 13 small bolts holding the manifold in place.  Lots of mud and sand but nothing that would block the flow to the telltale. Lots of wrenching in small spaces and a math problem for Maia. .

"If Daddy can only turn each bolt 1/8 of a turn at a time, the thread pitch is about 10/cm, how many wrench movements does it take to tighten just one of the bolts 1 cm"? (80 wrench  movents).

Put everything back together but forget to reattach the pee hose to the manifold.  This meant water sprayed every where when I started the motor. But nothing came out of the pee hole.

Finally I think to look at the tiny plastic fitting where the hose exits the cowling.

Yes, it was blocked with some tiny bits of shell. About 5 hours from first noticing the problem to fixing it.  It could have taken 10 minutes if I had checked the fitting to start with...

Finally head to town and find a curious grocery with oddly priced juice.  $38 for 1 L?? But $0.80 for 2 donuts.  I should have indulged. Instead I bought some canned green tea for something cold. I reminded me of the mouthwash at the dentists.

Tomorrow: 1 hr massages for $10. Its got to better than today.

-Evan