Monday is our day off together, so this week we headed to Army & Navy to get rubber boots and a hat for Jason. So much quality stuff there and at decent prices too. (No, they don’t pay me to say that… but maybe they should.) I couldn’t find any footwear for me, though, because it was all too big. Go figure.
After that, we went down to the boat. Jason swapped his sneakers for boots and bailed out the dinghy. When we got to Tomahawk, who was still sitting happily in the creek, we noticed that a lovely bird had had a poop fest all over the sail cover and deck. Luckily, Danny, the previous owner, had left a bunch of cleaning supplies on board, so Jason nicely offered to do the dirty work. We didn’t do the whole job, in hopes that it will rain and we won’t have to deal with it. Also, it could happen again by the time we get out there.
Our plan was to turn on the engine and put the sails up, just to see if we could. Then, if we got the engine running, we would take a little loop around the creek and practice setting the anchor again. The poop all over the sail cover sort of dampened our zeal for trying out the sails, so we focused on the engine.
Being totally inept at mechanical stuff, we took it step by step with the manual. It took us a few minutes to figure out how to tilt it down into the water, but we got it (well, Jason did, and mostly by accident, but hey, now we know what to do!). It turns out you have to pull it in before the latch will loosen to let it go down all the way.
Alas, pulling the starter cord yielded nothing. We’re not sure if we were doing something wrong, or if it’s just been sitting for too long, or what. I posted in the SailNet forum and a lot of people suggested the carburetor might be dirty, or the gas might be old, or the spark plugs might be failing to produce a spark.
We’re kind of stumped. Luckily, our informal sailing “instructor,” Steve, is going to come take a look next week, so he might be able to figure it out. Until then, If you know anything about engines, please leave a comment here to help us out!
