Thursday, 21 April 2016 - I had asked that the mechanic call me when he started to work on my Yamaha outboard. I explained to him that I'm bound to need work done on it in the future when I'm in the middle of nowhere and I'll need to fix it myself, so I could use the experience watching him trouble shoot and working on the engine. The young fellow said sure. It didn't work. They called this morning about 9:15 and said it was ready and running fine. I'll settle for that.
                  The previous mechanics that I had look at it had said the compression on the cylinders was low, about 50psi on each, that it needed one of the two ignition coils replaced, and that this "old engine" wasn't worth fixing; but that they would gladly take that one off my hands and sell me a new one for $2600. I had replaced both coils with no positive results after telling them "no thanks" on buying a new one and paying them their $100 service fee.
                  The mechanic here on Marco Island told me this morning that there was a broken wire that kept the second cylinder from firing, a missing cotter pin on the choke, and that both cylinders read about 160psi pressure. Basic service fee, $95...and I was glad to pay it, but disappointed in myself that I hadn't observed the broken wire when I had it apart myself. I suspect that the previous mechanics had left the cotter pin off the choke, too, because it had always started easily until it started running on one cylinder. I think they wanted my to give me a couple of hundred dollars for my "old" engine toward a new one for about $2,600, then sell mine to someone else for, probably, $1000.
                  The mechanic's assistant picked the outboard motor up from me at the end of one of the channels here on the island and delivered it back to me at the same location. When I asked the young man that delivered it how I could pay him, he said, "Oh, just drop by the shop at your convenience and pay then." Very trusting. I rode over on my bike and paid them right then, then returned to the dinghy, and out to the boat to switch the two motors, gas tanks, and connectors out and take it for a test drive. There sure is a big difference between the power and speed of the 8hp Evinrude and the 15hp Yamaha, even though they are about the same physical size. The Yamaha puts the dinghy up on a plane toot sweet. Not that I need that, but it's nice to have the power if you need it. For the test drive, I took it around the boat a couple of times, then to the edge of the bay, then up the river to the Marco Island Yacht Club. I hadn't been there before, so it was the perfect destination. It's not a very big marina, probably only about 120 to 150 boats, but it looks like a nice facility with floating docks. I was surprised at how short their pilings were, however, only about 6 feet high. With a tide or storm surge higher than that all the docks and boats could float away up and over the pilings together. That does actually happen, and for that very reason, the pilings at one of the marinas in Kemah, near Houston, are 17' high. Some of the marinas that had had pilings only 14' high had lost their docks and all the boats a few years back in hurricane Andrew. What a mess! They all went across the bay and crashed into the homes, businesses, and marinas on the other side.

Friday, 22 April - I drained and refilled the engine with water again this morning after having tested the fluid with a saline tester. It had only a faint, perhaps residual, amount of salt in it, barely changing the tint of the test strip at all. I started the engine and let it run...for about 20 minutes, then it overheated. I shut it off immediately, which was a mistake, I should have checked the telltale in front of the steering pedestal to see if water was being pumped through it first, probably not. I was sure I had put enough water in it, so I let it cool down for an hour, then got down in the engine room, closed the seacock on the raw water and cleaned the raw water intake filter. It had some grass and other small gunk in it, but nothing that I thought would stop the flow of water. Next, I opened the seacock to make sure that water could indeed come in, and that was fine. My assumption was now that something had blocked the intake temporarily and fallen away when I shut the engine off and the suction at the intake went away. I closed the seacock, reinstalled the filter, checked the coolant level, and restarted the engine. I then ran it for about another 40 minutes and everything went fine.
                  I had lunch, then, about 3 o'clock, I decided I still had enough time left to clean at least part of the hull. It's been way too long since I did it last time. I had been waiting, hoping to get to clearer water so I could actually see what I was doing. The water here has been getting clear enough to see about 3 feet as the tide goes out, so I thought I'd take advantage of that, which is way better than anywhere else I've been. Since I don't have the auxiliary generator back yet, I decided to just clean the waterline and what I could reach without having to submerge, but that's still quite a bit of territory on a 44' boat. The hull and rudder were well encrusted in sea life; seaweed and moss mostly, and some small barnacles. Perhaps an inch or two thick. I cleaned the hull and upper part of the rudder with a brush and broke loose barnacles with a wallboard mudding joint knife, which went to the Davey Jones' Locker as I got out of the water. With the visibility as it is, I didn't even consider going down to look for it.
                  Actually, I was surprised that the hull wasn't in worse shape than it was and that the gunk came off as easily as it did. Just before I got out, I decided to take a look at the propeller. I had to dive to see it, and it was a mess, really encrusted...and tangled in rope, probably the line from a crab pot (trap) that I ran over coming down to Marco Island, there were hundreds of them, and I understand that there are thousands on my next two legs of my journey; from here to Little Shark River, then to Marathon in the Keys. I decided the prop could wait until I get the generator back.
                  As I got out of the water onto the swim platform, I noticed something small and brown coating my equipment and wondered what it was. I didn't have glasses on, so I couldn't tell. As I headed forward, I felt as if something was crawling all over my neck, chest, even in my ears. I got my glasses and still couldn't tell what it was. I needed another pair of glasses or a loupe. I opted for the latter. The brown turned out to be all kinds of sea critters that apparently had taken up residence in the scum on the bottom of the hull, tiny crabs, shrimp, krill, worms of various kinds, etc., ranging in size from about 1/32" to 1/4" in size. When dislodged and their home ruined, they seemed to attach to anything that they could hold onto. That included my buoyancy vest, parts of my wetsuit, and me. A quick, but thorough, shower sure felt good. I poured rubbing alcohol in my ears just for good measure.

Saturday, 23 April - This morning's saline test strips showed no salinity at all, so I refilled the engine with antifreeze. In a way, I'm glad the engine overheated yesterday. That was probably a good test of the seal being performed by the repair job I did on the heat exchanger. If it's going to fail, it may very well happen at above normal running temperatures.
                  I had been hoping to get my generator back today, but just realized that it's Saturday and the repair shop is now closed for the weekend. I guess I won't be diving on the bottom of the boat for a few more days.

Sunday, 24 April - I'm still having problems with the cooling system, so today I replaced the thermostat with a backup and took the heat exchanger off and resealed both ends with the o-rings AND silicone gasket sealant. The silicone needs to set up for 24 hours.

Monday, 25 April - I went over to the marina this morning to get rid of the used, and probably saltwater polluted, antifreeze that I have taken out of the engine. After that I went to a store and bought a couple of T-shirts and another pair of shorts, 33 waist, a perfect fit. Next, I decided to have lunch at the only Mexican restaurant I've seen here on the island. The margarita was good, and the enchiladas were fair, but not even near the level of delicious as the ones at El Chihuahua in Salt Lake City. The cooks at this restaurant, Margaritas, must be from Sonora, Durango, Guanajuato, or some other Mexican state, not Chihuahua, and they missed out on the good ol' Texas influence that states like Chihuahua must have gotten over the years. ;-) I was close to the small engine repair shop that has my generator, so I swung by there on my bicycle to see if the ignition coil had finally come in, and it had, so I hoped they'd put it back together and call me later this afternoon, but no such luck. Maybe tomorrow. I think they're on Island Time.

Tuesday, 26 April - It rained about half an inch last evening and the boat sure looked nice and clean this morning. I refilled the engine's cooling system with antifreeze and started her up, then ran it for an hour. All is well. She ran nice and cool. I hope it stays that way. Having the engine back online means I can run the second refrigeration unit, too. That take a load off the 12VDC unit because it supplements the cooling in the middle reefer compartment. Well, not everything's well. After all this long wait for the ignition coil to arrive, the boys put my generator back together and there's still no spark. They had said that they had removed the coil, tested it, and that it was bad. Now I'm doubting that. Now they say it might be the pulse generator and that will be expensive because of the time involvement. No estimate on price yet...or delivery date. We're obviously on Island Time here. I have a long overdue appointment with a dermatologist on Thursday and was hoping to leave here on the first north wind after that to head south again. Maybe I won't. At least I can run the engine to charge batteries again. There's been so little wind that the wind generator hasn't been keeping up with the refrigeration's draw on the batteries.

Wednesday, 27 April - Last evening I received a reply to an email to the previous owner about sacrificial zincs on the boat. A zinc is literally a piece of zinc metal that is installed in an engine's salt water cooling system that will be "sacrificed" and corrode or dissolve away before the more important metals in the system, and can then be replaced easily and much more cheaply than the other parts of the system. It turns out that there is one, but I couldn't find it physically on the engine or in the numerous digital files or manuals about the engine. He was gracious enough to tell me the exact file it was in and the part number. In the diagram, it's merely labeled as a "plug", not a sacrificial zinc or in any other manner that would give a clue as to its real purpose, and there are many other plugs. Anyway, Rick George knew exactly where it was and how to get at it. It was hiding underneath the engine's air intake, actually a pretty easy location to access once you know where to look; remove one bolt and one hose clamp and your there. I had gotten a clue that there must be one, or some, when I found extra zincs in the spare parts box in one of the lazarettes. None of them fit, however, so I headed over to Rose Marina and got five. They may be harder to get further from "civilization." When I removed the "plug", I discovered that there was absolutely no zinc left in it, so that's probably a major contributing factor to the degree of degradation that had occurred to the heat exchanger. Thank God it's easy to get to. Since Perkins, the engine manufacturer, only installed one on the whole engine, I think I'll be checking it frequently until I get a feel for how quickly they deteriorate.
                  I was out of bread for lunch, so I headed over to Subway for some lunch and was then going to go to the grocery store. Just as I sat down to eat, I got a call from the fellow as Marco Island Small Engine Repair. He now says the problem could be either the pulse generator or the stator and that each takes several hours to install, and there's no way to tell which one is the real problem with installing them. Do I want install one at a time, or both together....and by the way, it'll be about $700.
                  What am I gonna do? Just get it done. I'm waiting on the generator so I can leave this place. Marco Island is no fun for me; lousy access to facilities and no easy access to entertainment. I won't be recommending this port to other sailors for anything but a safe haven from storms. Maybe Ft. Myers spoiled me. For the moment, I'm back in the waiting game. Parts are on order...I hope!