Back to Tahina Marina - Day 136 Papeete, Tahiti, French Polynesia.
Nina
Steve and Lynda Cooke
Sat 28 May 2016 21:54
Back to Tahina Marina - Day 136 Papeete, Tahiti, French Polynesia.
Rowing around in Dinghies……….
Or fun with the outboard……...
So we had seen the whoosh of water coming out of our outboard motor go from a proud continuous stream, to a pathetic little dribble.
We had had this since Stephens Bay in Nuku Hiva, going up the river. The entrance had been really tough going, full of rapids, sand and silt, so we were pretty sure the thing was blocked up.
The outboard had never been serviced since new in Spain last year, and there was a Mariner agent in the Tahina Marina in Papeete, so while we were there, we thought, 'why not?'
Well the thing is, it meant that ever since, the outboard had been more and more difficult to start, and eventually in Moorea, it stopped altogether. We had a week of rowing the dinghy backwards and forwards. Great for the bat-wings, but impossible for long distances.
We had to go back to Papeete anyway, got hold of our agent Laurent, who had booked it in in the first place, and got him to describe the symptoms to the big, ugly, chain smoking, hairy Frenchman, who had announced that it was probably our fault for having old petrol, or letting water get into the tank. Sigh!
He picked up the outboard from Nina on the trolley on the back of his bike, and peddled off after much chat and explanation.
Some 30 minutes later, he came back to explain that the outboard was working perfectly, and he couldn’t understand why it wouldn’t start for us?
Hmmmmmmnnnnn. Very suspicious!
We went and started the outboard in the test tank.
First pull, perfect!
We brought the engine back to Nina and put it on the dinghy.
First pull, perfect!
Every time since, with engine hot or cold,
First pull, perfect!
Sigh! Very suspicious, but happy outcome anyway, and we just hope it lasts now, as we push further into the island wilderness across the Pacific.