Our new, fun, multi-color tender

Well, after a long long time of working on it, I can now say it runs nicely.
However let me start with this:

FREE CRUISING GEAR!!!!!

I was given an engine that does not run, with a good condition lower unit. This was issue number one with my outboard.

When I was sold this outboard I was given the nautical equivalent of the "old lady driving to church" story about this engine. That it had been on a sailboat, and shop maintained. I can slice up some fine German or beef baloney, but I cannot fill an order that big. First, they had not lubed the lower unit in who knows how long. When you turn the shaft by hand, its actually hard to turn. That explains why the engine was hard to start, didn't want to run, randomly shut off, would pop out of gear, ECT.

This may also be why I was never able to plane.

Once I changed it out for the free one, MAGIC!!!!! This thing runs pretty good now.
It is UGLY, but functional, just like the rest of the dinghy.

I tried it out, taking it the entire way out to the municipal mooring field. Where I had a job diving on the Chris Lea.

Success! Glad to have a great working tender!

Amazing oven

Well today we ran out of propane for the stove. Normally this in itself wouldn't be worth a blog post. Except for one detail: we've been using the same tank for 5 months! The last fill was when we left New York.

The oven we had before we moved onto our yacht ran on propane too. Propane also fueled our heat so the tanks never really lasted long. A month in the summer is how long we could count on it to last and a week or so in the winter. We didn't cook as much with that stove as we do with now so we figured this one would last about a month at the most.

After the first month we rethought that. The second month went by and we still didn't need to fill it. The third, fourth, and fifth month we didn't need to either. We were starting to wonder if it would ever run out. Apparently we have a very efficient stove. Other then not having enough room in/on it sometimes it's a great little stove. It's gimbled too so that came in handy when we were sailing.

Needless to say we still had complaints about it. Actually it wasn't until a few weeks ago that we figured out how to use the oven part correctly. It used to be that after we were done with the oven to turn it off we would have to turn the gas off. It turns out that the knob was stripped and wasn't turning like it was supposed to. Duh! Now the oven works perfectly. We can't fix the "too small" part of it though. All in all, still a great stove.

Joshua went out to change the propane tank. I had him get a new one before we left Charleston and it's been latched to the deck ever since. All shiny and new with readable stickers. The one he pulled out of the propane locker has seen better days. In fact, it looks like it's been through war! I commend it for holding up.