Took a look at all of the emails today, I've been a monthly rather than daily email checker! Plus I have been doing as much fishing as I could before the weather turned, spurred on partly by the purchase of a newer used motor for my boat, which turned my boating experience from a nightmare to a dream, from a smoking, noisy motor that would sometimes run into a lovely, quiet, purring thing that responded instantly to every command.
I had a friend call me to invite me to spend a few days on his house boat at Lake Powell, and now that I had a motor that was reliable and worked, I was excited to do it. All went well until the second day. I was positioning my boat to be filled with gasoline pumped from a tank on the boat; it was a little windy and I had put the motor in reverse to reposition it, and then put it into neutral (or so I thought). In reality the motor was engaged and started moving forward. I was trying to figure out how the wind could move the boat so steadily when it hit the metal railing of the houseboat and snapped the boats windshield off, also pushing the throttle back into reverse! (Being stupid can be such a drag at times.) Well, we took off anyway, me with a half of windshield, and fished a canyon after going 10 miles or so up the main channel. We were fishing for stripers holding deep, and fishing was slow; but the weather was nice and it was just good to be in such a beautiful place. (I only had one fish on which got away when the knot came unraveled.) Around two in the afternoon we turned to go back to the houseboat for lunch, and I was having the time of my life motoring along the main channel of Lake Powell at 45 mph on glassy smooth water. Suddenly I heard and ominous clanking sound coming from my motor and immediately turned it off. It was obvious that something was terribly wrong. I couldn't believe it! I have been lucky in love, but very unlucky with boats! My friend came up from behind in his boat, and towed me directly to the ramp. I loaded up and came home a day early, pretty bummed. Well, the story has a happier ending. I took it up to the dealer, and he quickly established that the boat had thrown a piston, probably due to the failure of an oil injector. Even though it was bought used, and without any kind of warranty, the dealer said he would fix it, since I had had it less that 30 days. He was willing to pay for it all, but I offered to at least pay for the parts, since he really didn't have any obligation to make the repair. I told him he could take his time, since I had planned this to be the last trip of the year, so he offered to shrink wrap and store it for free so he could do the repair when things slowed down in the winter months. Pretty nice guy. Now I know that some of you are curious to know what kind of motor it was, but I don't want to get into the "which brand is best" conversation, since I have already made the purchase. I will say this much: It was a 2004 two- stroke with only 68 hours of use on it, and it ran like a dream: quiet, smooth, and reliably. I think the malfunction was a fluke, or a "snakebite" as my brother calls it. So now I'm going back to fly fishing my local river, with maybe a trip or two in my kick boat if the weather allows. In some ways it is a kind of relief to get back to a simpler world of fishing. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the "VFB Mail" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/vfb-mail?hl=en VFB Mail is sponsored by Line's End Inc at http://www.linesend.com
