Apr 18 - and now for something completely different

More outboard motor troubles !  We went boating, putted our way to the Coast Guard Station, as usual, since it's a Manatee zone and then accelerated, as usual, to about 25 mph.  I didn't expect that we'd get very far out the inlet because the wind and waves were crazy.  Then the motor lost power, like it was running on fewer cylinders.  I slowed down (had to), sped up again -- once it crossed the 2500 rpm boundary it started shaking, running on fewer cylinders.  Ugh.  We turned around, time to tuck our collective tails between our legs and get home, and it seemed to clear itself.  Ok, we might as well go to the island and not disappoint Cassie.

The tidal current was HUGE but we anchored and got out.  I didn't let Cassie swim because I figured that it was too dangerous.  We lost a ball that rolled in the water and was carried away.  The current ran along the beach and Angelika went out and fetched that one quite a bit later but then we lost another and gave up on that one. 

Back in the boat, the motor was running rough again; time to head home rather than to the restaurant.  Ugh.

Back at the marina, I went straight inside to talk to Mark, the owner.  He did up a work order but couldn't give any assurance as to when they'd be able to look at it.  He said that he was "down one tech" and backed up.  Whatever.

Al still wasn't back from his lunch so I sent Sandy, Angelika and Cassie home.  In the meantime, I decided to take off the plug at the back of the motor that has the tell-tale water stream.  It's plastic, about 1" in diameter.  There was some gunk in there so I lowered the motor again and started it up, ran it for about 2 seconds, lots of water gushing out, trying to clear out any gunk.  That plug has to be there to provide back pressure so that the cooling water goes to the cylinders. 

I put the plug in and the motor seemed to be running ok with no load, i.e. in neutral, even revving up to 4000 rpm and higher.  Whether that meant anything, I didn't know.  Al still wasn't back so I called Sandy and told her that I was going to take the boat out again, up the the Yacht Club (and us) and give it a run.  Away I went and once past the South Causeway, I could let 'er rip.  I ran it for about 20 minutes at high speed -- 35+ mph, 5000-5500 rpm, and it ran like a charm. 

Well, it seems as if that gunk was preventing cooling water from properly getting to the engine.  Earlier, by the inlet, the overheating alarm had gone off and I'd turned of the motor, raised it and checked the intake.  Once before, with the Bayliner, the alarm had gone off and there was a plastic bag wrapped around the water intake.

So my supposition is that whatever gunk had been sucked in by the impeller had partially blocked the cooling water and the engine was going into self-protect mode, which is what it's designed to do.  Taking the plug out had flushed the gunk and I was now "good to go". 

Back to the Marina, Al was back and when we put it up on the forklift, it again ran like a champ.  The last time, it had taken some coaxing to run water out the tell-tale - but that's not unusual as sometimes it doesn't prime right away. 

At any rate, I told Mark to put the work order on hold and I'd probably get them to do a service over the summer while we're away "at their leisure".  We bought the boat in 2009 and did have it serviced that season at 20 hours ?  50 hours ?  I don't remember -- but not since.  It's now got 225 hours on the meter.  The only other thing that I've done with it is change the bottom end oil.  Since it's out of the water all the time, there's really nothing else to do.

I called Sandy to pick me up.  By this time it was 3pm. 

Ding Dong -- no, it wasn't Avon Calling, it was the UPS lady.  She had my new iPhone SE.  Ok, I had something to do !

Getting that setup was pretty easy, in fact what took the longest was updating iTunes and Windows, both of which needed updates to be able to support the new phone. I backed up the iPhone 5, restored to the SE, called the automated Verizon line and was in business.  I had to reinstall all the apps but that didn't take any more than 15 minutes.  All their data had been restored and they operated straight away, even "knew" where they should be positioned on the panels.

It's faster, really nothing else immediately noticeable.  I suppose that I could take some pictures and compare, it does have other features like fingerprint recognition that the 5 didn't have, but nothing operational -- nor was I expecting to be wowed.

I'll use it for a couple of days and then wipe the 5 and sell it on eBay

The girls wanted to go out for dinner so we settled on The Flagler Tavern but ended up at The Breakers.  Such is life.  I had so-so blackened Mahi Mahi; Sandy had a HUGE melt-in-your-mouth piece of Ahi Tuna; Angelika had the NSB Burger.  My Mahi was simply the tail end of the fillet and a little overcooked.  It was good but nothing to write home about.  More C'est La Vie.

Today -- Sandy is taking Angelika to the airport.  She's got a flight sometime around noon, I think.  I may get out for a bike ride. 

I'm just back from the gym; I can hardly walk after Jessica gave me a glute, quad and calf workout yesterday.  

I'm obviously favoring my right leg / toe as I walk and ride, as it is quite a bit weaker than my left.  Any work that I'd done on the leg press before was with two legs.  Jessica tends to use these machines one leg at a time, to get things balanced.  The difference is striking.  I've got to find ways of working that right leg independently as I suspect that's part of the reason that my climbing ability has fallen off.  Interesting. 

So ... summing up my day ... seemed to have worked through the Johnson 150 issue, hopefully; diagnosed some inbalance in my training and strength that will likely help my cycling; upgraded my phone.  All in all it was a busy day !

Oh, one more thing that should be mentioned.  I'd heard from Alnasir a couple of days ago that Brian Fitzgerald had passed away.  The next day he circulated an email from Daphne, his wife, and I sent her a note.  The last time that we saw Brian and Daphne was at Alnasir's daughter Sikken's wedding.  He had Parkinson's and was walking with a cane, but was otherwise as sharp as usual, taking it in stride as it were, retired but involved in lots of committees.  

Brian, Alnasir and I worked at TA Associates together then separately went to TPF&C.  One year at the TA Christmas party, Daphne, Nimet and Sandy were all pregnant.  Sikken, Jeffrey and Cassie were born within a few months of each other.  Socially we mostly saw Daphne at parties hosted by Alnasir and Nimet.  She was VP HR at Zurich Insurance until she retired; Brian probably retired before me; don't know exactly.  He was 74 years young.

That's another of my peers gone.  Daphne will be holding a wake sometime in June but I suspect that we'll be in Philadelphia or I'll be out in Seattle doing the Cascade 1200k.  That's too bad; I'd have been there for sure.  

Onward !