Oh, for a can of 'easy start'
Arion's West Indian Adventure
Hermione & Douglas Pattison
Sun 1 May 2016 09:30
All of a sudden, 4 boat boys all leapt into the sea!! There was so much splashing and shouting, it took a while for us to notice that Ermentrude was on fire!! The boat boys were all swimming around, trying in vain to splash water to dowse the flames. Douglas grabbed a couple of buckets and started chucking water over the fire, still without success. I managed to jump into the dinghy and grab the almost full fuel tank before this caught fire. All this time we were so worried that the transom of our dinghy was going to melt so in the end Douglas and Uncle Michael tipped ladybird up on end and submerged the outboard which put out the fire!! Now the fire was out and thankfully Ladybird, although a little sooty is intact. I have to admit to feeling very sad about the loss of our outboard. It did make me realise though that all through my life I have experienced outboard engines which are unreliable…… (whatever Bob says, my mother and sisters will back me up that our outboards never used to start when we needed them…..!!) so the hunt is on for a replacement. May Ermentrude rest in peace in her salty, sooty grave and lets hope that her successor is more reliable and less temperamental. Perhaps for the first time in my life I might have full faith in an engine……… in the meantime Douglas is going to be the engine as we are having to row everywhere.
How old school!!