Fixing Our Outboard – What a journey!

Cruisers often joke that “cruising” is fixing the boat in exotic places. It is a funny catchphrase but it is also very, very true. Conversations with our fellow cruisers are often littered with comments about what is currently broken on their boat and how they plan to fix it. They will casually talk about what parts they need, how they are going to get those parts or that they are waiting for a part to arrive. We all nod in agreement. We offer help (if we can) or parts (if we have them). This is the stuff that builds the ties deep in this community. We are there for one another – always – because we know our turn to be the one in need is likely just around the corner.

Well, the turn for Wild Horses came up big recently. Our trusty outboard on our dinghy failed. Yes, that outboard. You know, the one that makes sure Ocean gets to shore several times a day. It is critical gear for Wild Horses. Yikes!

The problems started at Black Point Settlement, in the Exumas. Mike would start up the dinghy motor, let it idle and then it would stop. Huh? Why the problem idling? We suffered through this for a few days, all while checking on the usual suspects (gas level, fuel lines, fuel pump). We could get the outboard going again by quickly shifting it into gear, but the idling issue kept happening. And it kept getting worse.

After chatting about our issue with our boat buddies on Tekana (Dean and Jean), Dean suggested that the carburetor needed to be cleaned. Thankfully, he has done this kind of work before and dove in. He also adjusted the idle screw and the pilot screw (okay, what are these things?) to finely tune our idle. Thank you Dean!

But, oh, the issue reared its ugly head again the next day.

By the time we got to Georgetown, the outboard wouldn’t idle at all. We played around with the adjustments to the idle screw and the pilot screw again. No good. In fact, I think we made it worse 😊. Dean was hailed for help, along with another mechanic friend and cruiser, Joe (on Shamal). It was all hands-on deck. The result? No improvement. Argh!

Dean working on our outboard in Black Point Settlement

All hands on deck trying to fix our outboard in Georgetown

Oh that nasty old carburetor!

Dean in the foreground, leading the charge with drinking away our outboard sorrows

Then we met Wayne, from the sailing catamaran Gwayne. Wayne is a trained mechanic, among many other things not limited to amazing cook, musician, paramedic and fireman. Needless to say, Wayne is a very handy guy to have around!
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Well, Wayne worked on our outboard for two days. The result? Some improvement. Our outboard would now idle like a kitten purring. Yay! But now it would shut down if we increased the throttle. Yes, that’s right. We now had the opposite problem. Argh 2.0!

Wayne really felt that the solution to our problem was a new carburetor. Did we happen to have a spare? Nope! We would have to order it in and, based on the experiences of other cruisers, we were looking at up to two weeks or more to get one delivered to Georgetown. Yikes! What about Ocean? How would we get her to shore?????

Enter the boat Happy Cat. This is a sailing catamaran that had joined our “trying to make it to Grenada” group at Georgetown. They are a family of six from Australia and truly the most lovely people of all time. They offered that they had a spare 6 HP outboard that we could borrow. The only difficulty with this plan was that they were starting their sail south to Grenada the next day. Their response? “No problem, mate!”. They would just pick up the outboard when we met again in Grenada. What???? This kind of kindness and generosity is off the charts! Although much slower than our 15HP outboard, that little 6HP got us to shore for Ocean, and to town for groceries, and maybe to the bar (once or twice) for a few beers 😉.

Ocean waiting to go to shore

Our borrowed outboard (on the motor mount) and our actual outboard (on our dinghy)

A few members of the crew of Happy Cat land a mahi mahi fish

Then the best news. The carburetor I ordered on a Tuesday with one day shipping, arrived in time to make the weekly flight from Florida to Georgetown the next day. We had our new carburater in our hands on the Friday. And the wonderful Wayne installed it the following day.

The result? Our outboard is running perfectly! And it is only thanks to this community. We have so many people to thank – people who offered their advice and assistance, people that gave their time and skill, even people who gave us a spare outboard 😊. We are just so grateful. And we can’t wait to pay it back, pay it forward and pay it however so that we lighten the load for someone else.
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Love this cruising community!

Our new carburetor has arrived!

Wayne and Mike doing a test on the new carburetor install

It passed the test so Mike starts the process of lowering our outboard onto our dinghy

Wayne tests the speed of the outboard. It is fast and working great!

Mike in his happy place, with our outboard back on our dinghy and working great!

​What’s next for us? Our outboard was fixed in time to make a possible window south to Luperon, Dominican Republic. We are hoping to be headed out of the Georgetown harbour, and further south, in just a few days 😊.

One of the events we were able to attend because of our borrowed dinghy engine - a full moon party for the April Pink moon!

A camera filter adds a much-needed element of piracy to our wonderful cruising group!

A very sandy Ocean is happy to have never missed her beach time while our outboard wasn't working