She's B-A-A-A-C-K!

After 4-plus months, my Skeeter is back in the storage shed at West Neck Marina, complete with a rebuilt Yamaha outboard that will be ready as soon as the break-in is complete. Brought it "home" from the mechanic's shop today, with the help of my long-time friend and tournament partner, Wayne Hayes.

Turns out that the crux of all my problems leading up to the boat going to the shop to start with was a pinhole leak (see arrow pointing it out at left) that allowed water to get to a lot of places it shouldn't have been.

The mechanic also said he had fixed the problem that had caused numerous overheat alarms many moons ago until I had Wayne remove all the thermostats. My YammerHammer 150 now has a new set of thermostats, which the mechanic assured me will operate like they're supposed to.

As I was leaving the mechanic's shop today, he left me with a couple other considerations, too. First of all, he made certain that I understood the necessity of using double oil during the break-in period. (If any mosquitoes are still alive in Virginia Beach, they won't be for much longer...I assure you.) And secondly, he cautioned me to be alert to the fact my outboard is apt to have a lot more giddy-up-go than I've been used to for quite some time. "No hot-doggin'" were his exact words to me.

In any event, I'm feelin' good again...albeit a bit out of practice. Felt like a fool this afternoon as we were running the outboard for a few minutes at the West Neck ramp (yes, in all that cold rain) and Wayne told me to check all my pumps. I flipped on the two livewell fill valves but didn't see the lights in the switches, at which point Wayne hollered, "Might help if you turn on the master power switch first."