The trip up from Guadalupe at the end of February was a bit of a bash. The easterly breeze we were hoping for didn’t eventuate, so we motorsailed the last 20 miles. It was pretty special to arrive at Falmouth harbor, a destination we’d been looking forward to since our Atlantic crossing.
We had scheduled a lower unit service on the Etec outboard at Seagull Marine. It had been suffering from overheating since Martinique, so we needed the impeller and oil changed. They sent a trailer to collect our dinghy and took it back to the shop. Todd had the replacement parts in hand thanks to Kim and Colin, who brought it with them from England. It’s hard to get parts and a hassle to have to wait for them, as we learned with our solar and batteries. In addition, our outboard was no longer being made, and parts were even harder to find.
The service was completed by early afternoon, and we splashed the dinghy and returned to Right Meow…only to have the outboard cut out as we tied up. It was Friday afternoon, and the outboard mechanic would be headed home at 3pm. He offered to meet us at the town dinghy dock if we could get there.
After the engine cooled down, we set off and got about halfway before it died. We tossed the anchor over and hung out for 15 minutes before some other cruisers who were heading to the dock offered us a tow.
Greg, the mechanic, met us at the dock and actually took the lower unit off again with the dinghy in the water, a difficult task!
The problem ended up being a missing part in the replacement kit. Greg salvaged the part he needed from the old one and got the engine purring again, all before knockoff time. The shifting is not quite as smooth as it was but we hope the engine hangs in there for the season.
