On the way to the Marquesas

Gudrun V
Axel Busch
Sun 15 Apr 2012 16:52
Sunday, 2012-04-15, 11:39 local (17:30 UTC), 90:29.1W, 0:55.2S, COG 230, SOG 5kn

After shopping for fruit and veggies at the local market yesterday we had breakfast in Cafe Hernan, one of our favorite places. Then we went back to the boat to stow everyting away and get ready for the voyage. As usual, item after item that wasn#t on the list popped up and it was 4pm by the time we were ready to haul the dinghy up nto the deck. That is usually the last thing we do before leaving other than weighing the anchor of course).

But first I had to take the outboard engine off the dinghy. Because we dont have a lift for that I usualy ush it from the dinghy onto the bathing platform at the back. Because the outboard weighs a little more than 50kg and the dinghy keeps moving about it's a little awkward, and the mantra "don't drop it into the water" is on an endless loop in my mind. Guess what? Of course, I dropped it.

The outboard was already half-way on the bathing platform when a wave jerked the dinghy away and pulled the outboard from the platform. That gave me the choice of letting go of the outboard, or going into the water with it. Of course held on to it! Don't want to loose my precious outboard. I threw both my arms around the housing, hugged the outboard with all my strength and splash!

Fully expecting to be pulled to the bottom of the bay by the 50-something-kg outboard I was determined to give it a fight nevertheless. I could always let go later, right?. To my big surprise I managed to resurface and keep us more or less afloat, long enough to get close to the boat and hold on to the bathing platform with one hand. With the other arm and both legs wrapped around the outboard I hung at the platform, mouth barely above the water surface, and called "LIIIIIIIIZ, LIIIIIIIIIIIIIZ!".

Liz came, and to her credit she didn#t start laughing but tied a rope to the boat and handed it to me. So glad she praciced knots so well! Together we got the outboard back unto the boat.

I heard once that the best thing to do when your outboard went overboard is to clean it and put it back on the dinghy and run it. So I rinsed the thing off and cleaned it, and also took out the spark plugs and cleaned them and cycled the engine a few doze times. Then I put it back on the dinghy, attached the fuel hose, and ran it for a few minutes. After putting it onto Gudrun (this time without dropping it into the water) I thoroughy sprayed it with WD40. Hope it still runs when we get to the Marquesas!

Then we decided that it's probably better to leave the leaving until the next day. Instead we went out for happy-hour-drinks with the New Zealanders from the next boat, and then went back to Gudrun early.

After a long night's sleep we got up early this morning and weighed the anchor at 8am. Now we're on our way SW under engine, because there's only 3kn of wind. If the weather is anything like the last days we can epect some wind later and will be able to sail a few hours. But we won't get decent wind until we're at least 4 degrees south, so the plan is to go south-west or even south at first, and then mostly west.