It has been raining for months here, k well, for days anyway. It has rained everyday this month . My boat has been waiting for the yards to finish some work. They did a beautiful job on the bottom paint and they buffed the topsides to a nice shine, she looks new. The engine, a 4 stroke Honda 9.9 needed the oil changed and some new grease and I decided it was time to replace the impeller (preemptive maintenance). So finally today was SPLASH day. I twisted a friend's arm to help with the car shuttle. We stopped and picked up some lunch and dropped his car off at the slip. Then we went by and picked up a case of beer for a yard tip and then to the yard. They had launched the boat and everything was ready when I arrived. I started the engine, stowed my rain gear (brought it along in spite of the sunny skies) and turned on the spot. After about 10 minutes with nothing else toi do we shoved off. About 100 yards past the bulkhead a loud, high pitched tone coming from the engine controls started whistling. I shut off the engine. I restarted it and nothing so we again started to move down the creek. After 15 seconds in gear the tone reappeared. Now I am starting to worry. I turned around headed back to find out what was going on. We had a 8-10 know breeze that nicely pushed up (bare poles) back to the bulkhead from which we had just departed. After tying up I went to the office. Chuck, the mechanic, came out to look. We spent a half our discussing what happened. Chuck did some quick "tricks" and still nothing. So, the yard manager re-hauled the boat and Chuck promised to have it running shortly. Another weekend lost. And I hope nothing too severe.
Joe McCary Aeolus II, West River, MD joe at photoresponse.com www.aeoluswestriver.net
