ZEN AND THE ART OF FIXING AN OUTBOARD ENGINE

Salsa af Stavsnas
Ellinor Ristoff Staffan Ehde
Tue 23 Jul 2013 05:49
First of all let me give you some small pictures:
Erika and Andreas are making a big Lego world on the table in the saloon. I overheard yesterday that it is winter in that world. A really bad winter with a lot of snow and problems that go with it. It is funny when it is about 27-30 degrees celsius. But today the world was still there and empty. No figures, no kids. Then I heard some activity in the forward bathroom (impressive heh?), and I found out that everybody left the winter for a nice vacation in the warmth, in the bathroom, where they had swimmingpools etc.
 
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I took the Kayak along our muto today, when I got at the end of the island I decided to step out and take a walk along the beach on the ocean side. I really need to walk. Well there was no beach of course, the waves crash over the coralreef end move all the way up to the palm trees. Tons and tons of live coral is washed ashore. Beautyful and sad in a way. But thats the weather. Another thing that is washed up are PET bottles . Thousands of them. And plastic shoes. And when I saw the plastic shoes I rememberd I have forgotten to tell you that most people on these islands do wear these shoes, and since they will not find a pair they will have a bigger and a smaller, and color does not match. Good that they can use them. The world is going to drown in plastic bottles, plastic chairs and plastic shoes.
 
So let's move on to the outboard engine. It is amazing that when I cry for help on the blog, I get it. Especially from Bill on Sunrise and Paul Copeland in NZ (we never met but he follows us). Long mails with very good advices. Thank you !!!!
As we got the engine on board on the aft deck I started to take it apart. And as usual things happen that are not supposed to.
In Grenada we did take the engine to a Yamaha dealer (as it said in the manual) when we got dirt in the carburator.
Well that is the only time it has been fixed by a Yamaha Dealer so my suspisions are strong. The mechanic most probably used an electric screw driver when he put the brass screw back on the bottom of the carborator. So he grinded it and there was no way to take a grip on it. Even our neighbourgh George on Winddancer came over with some tools but we just could not open it. So I had to play being a dentist, drill a hole in the screw and take an "easy out" to get the screw out of place.
Only that took almost the entire morning. Thank you very much Yamaha in Grenada.
Then I checked other things in the engine and put it all together and IT WORKS!
So I guess I'm the Yamaha dealer in Manihi now (with suport from my friends)
And yes thank you Martin (Ellinors twin brother), the air screw to the tank was open. As a matter of fact that is what got us into troubble, probably. Because if you leave it open you get water in the gasoline (great design).
 
Oh yes, the wind is even stronger now, 30-40 knots. The whole boat is shaking when the wind grabs the mast.