Just the two of us

Good news on the outboard motor front. The local marina can dispose of bad gas. The dockmaster helped me dump the fuel tank. I'd read the manual so I knew there was a separate drain for the carburetor.

One of the guys down the dock from me was making a Walmart run and offered to pick up anything I needed. Carburetor cleaner seemed like the thing so he picked up a spray can. I was able to spray cleaner without having to disassemble too much. Once everything was cleaned up I added a little fresh gas. After a few pulls to get the gas into the engine it kicked over.

Now it runs well. In fact, my lovely wife and I decided to take the boat out for a sail. The motor was used a short while until we were out of the marina into the river. Then it was turned off until we came back in. When Dan the previous owner took us out he was able to land it at the dock without a motor. Of course he's been sailing these waters for over 10 years. I was happen to have a decent landing using the motor.

Heck, I was happy to not collide with anything or anybody. My lovely wife and I managed the sails just fine. We tried a few different arrangement just to see what it could do. Winds were fairly light, but we did hit over 5.5 knots for a stretch. That doesn't sound like much to you power boaters, but it's a good enough speed in a small sailboat.

Oh, one other thing. The big condo towers next to the marina will have to come down. They bock my wind.

We are going to run out of Fort Myers for a while yet as we sort out the boat. Rather than try to press onward to my step mom's for Christmas, we decided to leave the boat in the marina and rent a car. I've one reserved for the 23rd. By then we'll have goodly list of last minute things for the boat.

-Sixbears