Hopetown ramblings

 So the outboard has been acting up when we take a long ride. After a couple of minutes at a good clip of say 15 knots it would lose all power and sometimes it would die. There were a few times this happened while we were crossing inlets like South Man O War near Elbow Cay. While these outages were happening with good weather they cause quite a bit of concern given there are not that many people around to help in this area. This isn't the kind of sport one wants to engage in on a regular basis.
 The first time this happened I thought I had this figured out when I found a small amount of water in the tank. Along with the water there were several 'earwig' bugs laying in the bottom of the tank. After cleaning the carburetor out and reinstalling it the engine ran fine for about a month at which point it started cutting out again. Once again I pulled the carb and found all sorts of crud in there that was blocking the narrow passages off. This time I also drained out the fuel hose and found a bit more water in the tank. I realized that I had not gotten all of the water out after the first occurrence. There is a ridge in the bottom of the tank that prevented me from getting it all. So after leaning the tank up against a pole for a 1/2 hour yet more water made itself available for extraction. That and one more earwig.
 Hoping to avoid this sort of distraction in the future, I elected to shell out 104 bucks for a fuel water separating filter with a sight and drain that I could have bought in the States for 65 or 70 bucks. Hopefully this is the end of that issue. Given several dinks over here are suffering this affliction and they are paying about 180 bucks to have the carbs cleaned and adjusted, I think we got off easy.

 The cold front moved through last night with vengeance. Earlier this morning there was chatter on the radio about someone clocking the wind at 52 mph around 3 am. I believe it because the dock lines all stretched quite a bit. I know this because around 3 am I was out on the dock attending to a power cord that was about to be pulled out of the boat. Fortunately the noise it was making by rubbing against the hull alerted us.

 The sun is out now and tomorrow is another day. Since it's cool it was a good morning to spend some time waxing Freedom after the thorough rinsing by the rain that came with the front. Given the wind it was probably more like a good power-washing.