Day 113, Year 11: Return of the Dinghy Outboard
Date: Friday, February 12, 2016
Weather: Beautiful, Sunny Day, High 70’s, Low 50’s
Location: At Anchor in West Palm Beach City Anchorage, FL
It is not as exciting as the Return of the Jedi, but the return of the dinghy outboard gave us both reason to cheer outloud. Neither of us wanted to buy a new outboard at this point, so we are quite happy to have it back. Dave, the Mechanic on Wheels, did a good job. He had to work hard to find parts–shaft seals, waterpump, gaskets—as we bought our Yamaha Enduro 2-stroke in Malaysia and they are no longer made in this country for environmental reasons. One part had to be FedX’d from Japan. We feel a tad guilty using a motor that is not environmentally friendly, but the new 4-strokes are so much heavier that Mark and I aren’t sure we still have the strength to handle one. So guilt-ridden as we are, we are very happy to have our ‘one-pull Yamaha’ back in service.
Today was a gorgeous day, much warmer with very little wind. At least two boats in this anchorage left early this morning headed for the Abacos in the Bahamas. This is the first opportunity for a passage in the last couple of weeks, so we hope everyone in the exodus had a good passage across the Gulf Stream. We are getting very anxious to hear what the doctor has to say about Mark next week. A good report would mean that we could leave for the Bahamas in March. We just have to wait and see if she (Mark’s oncologist) can isolate the reason for his stomach pain. It would certainly be a great relief to get that problem solved.
We are looking forward to the arrival of Alan and Helaine Kanegsberg tomorrow. When they leave on Sunday, they will take Mark with them and drop him at the airport. It is going to be very cold in Massachusetts when he arrives. The high temperature in Boston and on the Cape on Sunday is forecast to be in the low teens with overnight temps hovering around 0 degrees F. I might be lonely here, but I know I will be warmer!
