As much as I want to be able to sail everywhere I go without an engine, I admit I am glad I have one. It is certainly convenient from time to time. The engine on No Bad Days is an old 2 stroke Nissan 9.9 horsepower. It has been kept in good shape, and runs pretty good but seems to be hard to start. I crank and crank sometimes to no avail and end up giving it a squirt of starting fluid which usually does the trick and it roars into life.

Today a guy was at the boat next door working on his so I took the opportunity to ask a few questions. What came out of that is that the carburetor needed an deep inside cleaning. Not just a squirt of carb cleaner but total dis-assembly. It seems that if you leave an engine sitting cold for months at a time with gas in the carburetor it evaporates and leaves behind oil and varnish sludge which gums up the works and makes it hard to start! Last winter when I bought the boat I buttoned her up and headed back to Utah, not making it back until July, leaving gas in the carb to evaporate and gum up the works. Making it hard to start…..

The mechanic guy said it wasn’t hard, just don’t lose any pieces and put them all back in just the same way, and call him if I run into trouble. (I know he expected a call…cha ching cha ching he thought!) . In spite of my many years of letting Jiffy Lube take care of my cars, I do know a bit about mechanic work. ( even though I may not know much about boat engines!) . I have rebuilt lawnmowers, car transmissions, engines, clutches, brakes, almost every part of cars and lawn mowers. I have a pretty good set of tools so I tore into it. 2 hours later it was all back together, there were no parts left over, and 1 tug on the starter rope and it roared to life and idled smooth as a baby breathing asleep. . Ahhhh how schweeet the sound. I have never loved the roar of an engine as much as I did today.

Maybe a bit of grease under my nails is not so bad after all. And maybe I should get a shirt with my name embroidered on a patch and wear my pants a bit baggier…..