On the way to the Marquesas

Sunday, 2012-04-15, 11:39 local (17:30 UTC), 90:29.1W, 0:55.2S, COG 230, SOG
5kn

After shopping for fruit and veggies at the local market yesterday we had
breakfast in Cafe Hernan, one of our favorite places. Then we went back to
the boat to stow everyting away and get ready for the voyage. As usual, item
after item that wasn#t on the list popped up and it was 4pm by the time we
were ready to haul the dinghy up nto the deck. That is usually the last
thing we do before leaving other than weighing the anchor of course).

But first I had to take the outboard engine off the dinghy. Because we dont
have a lift for that I usualy ush it from the dinghy onto the bathing
platform at the back. Because the outboard weighs a little more than 50kg
and the dinghy keeps moving about it's a little awkward, and the mantra
"don't drop it into the water" is on an endless loop in my mind. Guess what?
Of course, I dropped it.

The outboard was already half-way on the bathing platform when a wave jerked
the dinghy away and pulled the outboard from the platform. That gave me the
choice of letting go of the outboard, or going into the water with it. Of
course held on to it! Don't want to loose my precious outboard. I threw
both my arms around the housing, hugged the outboard with all my strength
and splash!

Fully expecting to be pulled to the bottom of the bay by the 50-something-kg
outboard I was determined to give it a fight nevertheless. I could always
let go later, right?. To my big surprise I managed to resurface and keep us
more or less afloat, long enough to get close to the boat and hold on to the
bathing platform with one hand. With the other arm and both legs wrapped
around the outboard I hung at the platform, mouth barely above the water
surface, and called "LIIIIIIIIZ, LIIIIIIIIIIIIIZ!".

Liz came, and to her credit she didn#t start laughing but tied a rope to the
boat and handed it to me. So glad she praciced knots so well! Together we
got the outboard back unto the boat.

I heard once that the best thing to do when your outboard went overboard is
to clean it and put it back on the dinghy and run it. So I rinsed the thing
off and cleaned it, and also took out the spark plugs and cleaned them and
cycled the engine a few doze times. Then I put it back on the dinghy,
attached the fuel hose, and ran it for a few minutes. After putting it onto
Gudrun (this time without dropping it into the water) I thoroughy sprayed it
with WD40. Hope it still runs when we get to the Marquesas!

Then we decided that it's probably better to leave the leaving until the
next day. Instead we went out for happy-hour-drinks with the New Zealanders
from the next boat, and then went back to Gudrun early.

After a long night's sleep we got up early this morning and weighed the
anchor at 8am. Now we're on our way SW under engine, because there's only
3kn of wind. If the weather is anything like the last days we can epect some
wind later and will be able to sail a few hours. But we won't get decent
wind until we're at least 4 degrees south, so the plan is to go south-west
or even south at first, and then mostly west.