New plan...and other things

So here we are, still at Vero Beach. First thing that you have to grasp is that once you are attached to the mooring can/ball, you are on your own for transportation to and from shore. A dinghy is a must! Either that or you walk on water; swimming is not a wise choice here.  Well, thas' al'right wid us, bud, 'cause we do have a dink. Another official nautical, "sailor cool" term, Chuckie; dink; aka, rubber boat, dinghy. What doesn't show in the pic, is that the dink has an outboard motor attached to the transom ( the solid part of the boat running between the aft ends of the tubes); clear on that part? The motor, in this case is a Tohatsu 8hp, twin cylinder motor. It will usually drive the "dink" fast enough to scare the pants off you. What makes it even more fun is that the "dink" has an inflatable floor; any chop, or waves and the floor ripples. Kinda wild to experience. Anyway, the combo has been behaving fandamntastically for the whole trip. One of the perks that the city of Vero Beach offers is a free bus that serves the marina and important local entities; Walmart, Publix, etc. We had need to visit those places, so into the dink, PFD's on, pull the starter handle; nothing, after lots of pulls; nothing, not even a pop. Now, mind you, it is about 80, and not a lot of wind; its hot! Flooded? A common thing with these engines. Pull the plugs; can't, don't have a 16mm socket. Call NAPA, they'll send one out. Gotta row in to get it. Fortunately, a nice guy gave us a tow along the way. Got the socket, pulled and dried the plugs; nothing. Got another tow back to Scooter. Boy, we're having fun now! Seeing the flurry of activity around the boat, several experts, nice guys, and certainly well meaning, appeared and offered their services. Talked to some of my people; got more info; all educational. Les' see; plugs are wet, carb has fuel, fuel looks clean coming out of the carb; no spark! Go to "bubba" and the redneck repair guys on the internet. Bottom line step one; by pass kill switch. Did so; pulled cord; up and running! 'Course you can't shut it off; "MacGyvered" it for now.  OK, mobile again, off to town, laundry, etc. Let's do dinner at the local hot spot; we can dinghy over... Great idea.......I must digress a moment. When I was younger, so many moons ago, my father decided I was tolearn how to ride horses and such. Mind, I was still in the snow suit stage. So, Dad goes into the barn, puts me on the back of Pedro, the donkey, grabs the rope, says" here you go" swats Pedro on the Butt, and out the door we went. Good ol' Dad is standing there holding the rope  that is still firmly attached to the wall. Pedro and I quickly reached an agreement; I'd get off,  he wouldn't kick me. So, back to the story; the trip over went smoothly, dinner was adequate, and the trip back to the marina dock was great; twinkling anchor lights, wind in your hair, motor (still) purring. In and out of the dock, heading back to Scooter, crew says" I think I'm holding the wrong rope". " Say, what" says the whiz bang Capt'n. "I don't have the right rope" " I'm holding the side rope, not the front rope" " Ah....soooo" says the Capt'n, now suspecting that the night will not be ending quite according to his plans. Throttle to idle; too late, motor just thudded to a stop. Out with the oars. Stroke, stroke. Tie it up, out with a boat hook, clear line from prop, good to go. Gotta tell you, Chuckie, took a bit longer than the telling. Fun part was shining a light into the infested waters while you waved a shiny arm around hunting for the line. Bait did not used to be part of my personal experience.

All turned out to be well; motor runs fine, folks that now share can # 50 with us are quite good. As to the new plan; after some discussion. looking at weather and some other things, Scooter and crew will be turning North on Tuesday. Timing and the desire to see some things on the way back to the Chesapeake have led us to make the decision.

First half of the journey has been fun, different from the last time we did this, but in an interesting way. We're looking forward to seeing some new spots; maybe a quick revisit to some places we saw on the way down, but, perhaps shorted in the time we spent. Hope you'll stay with us. Catch you on the flip side!