June 10: Beans = Dickens

It was Roger. Explaining where we stand with the Yamaha 115 that powers The New Boat. He got as far as "when you want to give it the beans," when David started laughing, and telling him he looks young for how old he sounds. He tried to continue with his explanation - actually, I think he did continue with his explanation, but we were all too mesmerized by beans to pay attention. So just to be sure I understood what he was saying, I asked if, when you give the outboard the beans, does that make it go like the dickens? Whereupon, Roger shared the mathematical formula with us that is the title of this post. I almost said that this is what happens when we get up early, have a few fish and a full day at AGS. That is true, but it can also happen any other day under just about any other condition. That is only part of the reason I love to be here with this crew.

We had two fish on the very early morning tide, caught on the inside of the one net we had out, and we got the other nets set out. We came back and napped for a bit then Roger, Jeff, and I headed into town to try to get The New Boat going while David and AJ stayed back to tend the nets on the afternoon tide.

Roger and Jeff got the outboard put back together. They went to the stockroom to get hydraulic fluid for the steering mechanism and their request was misunderstood - the stockroom guys thought he asked for Hynautic fluid, which is a different thing although it is some type of hydraulic fluid for steering systems - but it wouldn't work for ours. However, they didn't know that and the label said it was hydraulic fluid for steering systems, so they poured it in the little hole by the steering wheel. It could have been a bad thing, but we were lucky. We lost a plug so the hydraulic fluid was able to squirt out as they were putting it in, so I needed to go back to the stock room to get a replacement plug. While I was there, I asked the question that developed in my mind on the way to the stockroom: if the hydraulic fluid for the steering system is different from the hydraulic fluid for our power rollers, does that mean that the hydraulic fluid for the boom truck might be different again? Different, asked Roy? That's when I learned (a) that we were using the wrong thing altogether and if it leaked into the cylinders it could have caused a bad problem, and (b) how to chase the wrong fluid out of the steering system with the right fluid. So I consider that a very lucky lost plug.

Once we got the steering straightened out, we tried to start it... and the battery was dead. So we borrowed a battery ... and it wouldn't start. Are there goobers in the fuel? (Yes, but removing them didn't change anything.) Is this a good gas tank? (Not sure but let's switch to a different one... and it still didn't start.) Is the fuel getting to the engine? (Yes, when Roger disconnected the fuel line from the engine, gas poured all over his hand.) Roy to the rescue: he advised us to make sure there is enough oil in the inboard oil reservoir. (We thought only the external oil reservoir needed to be filled.) Once we got it started, I am very glad that Jeff noticed that the forward and backward were reversed (I don't think I would have noticed that myself) and there was something wrong with the throttle - we think it means that if we had launched it, we would have only been able to go backwards at a high idle. Luckily, they were able to fix that, but still the outboard can't seem to throttle up, so if we want to "give it the beans," we'll be surprised and disappointed.

After spending the day at AGS, we went a memorial for Steve Williams, our fishing neighbor since I was 14 years old. I think Steve was about my age and Mark was the younger brother - 10 or 11 when we met. Mark and Dana have a place in town (where they are developing a bed and breakfast - and I can't imagine having better hosts as they are the best neighbors a person could hope for). They hosted Steve's memorial which seemed more like a celebration than a sad event and it was lovely to see so many people there that I haven't seen for years.

Tomorrow is another early day for fishing, followed by another day in town for Roger, Jeff, and me. I hope that Roy will have had the chance to perform some magic with the Yamaha so we can at least get the New Boat in.

Jake comes in Wednesday afternoon and the three of us will go pick him up and if we can get the timing to work out right, we'll go visit Charlies Sport Shop to look at an outboard we are considering. I hope and believe that Jake will be carrying the correct steering cable for the Ambi in his luggage. I want to get that boat in the water very soon just in case the new coil packs did not correct the way it was running at 1/2 power (or less) at the end of last season. Roy says that the way we need to test it is to launch it, then drive it into the pilings, and push hard. Is he just trying to make us look like we can't drive? Or maybe he's trying to get a whole new dock...