Well we spent a semi successful weekend on the boat, the admiral had Friday off, and we were actually able to get our other errands and stuff done, luggage packed and down to the boat before 5pm.
Saturday morning dawned cool and windy, but a promising day indeed, at least until after breakfast when I started the engine which ran for about 90 seconds and died. This is the same problem I had with the Honda outboard back in November and early December, I thought I had fixed it by replacing some leaking fuel lines and cleaning the fuel pump screen.
So after looking at the screen, clean this time and actually replacing the fuel pump with a spare from my parts motor, the engine fired up and ran like it was supposed to.
I let it idle at the dock for about 30 minutes as I got the boat ready to go out and it never had a problem.
We headed out about noon and had some decent if flukey winds, I let the admiral take the tiller while I got a chance to relax (what a change) and she did a great job. We headed down stream and got becalmed a couple of times, so I'd fire up the Honda and motor to the next patch of wind. Well about the 3rd time this happened the Damn motor did the same thing, fired up, ran for 30-90 seconds and died. At this point I'm pretty convinced that there is crap from the old tank getting into the fuel pump and causing havoc. I pulled the engine cover off, got out my trusty little ball peen hammer and lightly tapped on the fuel pump and carburetor (just for good measure) and attempted to start the outboard again, this time she fired up and stayed running. I put her in gear and headed back to the marina, while there were winds, I knew that they would be right on the nose trying to get into the marina and didn't want to risk trying to do that without a running outboard.
So there we were motoring in while everyone else was coming out for a beautiful day of sailing, we got back in without any further drama from the motor, total time on the water.... about 4 hours.
Back at the dock I decided that I needed to put a filter in the fuel line between the tank and motor, but it was almost 5pm and the nearest auto parts store was just about to close, something to do in the morning.

Sunday Morning: After waking up (forgetting about moving the clocks forward) and having a leisurely breakfast I headed into town to the Napa store, of course they were out of the filter size I needed, I headed over to the Ace Hardware (which was probably open till 9 or something yesterday) Got a filter for a lawnmower (same size) and some clamps. Got back to the boat added the filter after some flooding issues, got the engine to start, it ran pretty well but I noticed that the fuel filter was not staying full, in fact just a trickle of fuel was getting into the filter.
Ok more troubleshooting, I pulled the pickup screen out of the fuel tank - clean no blockage. I used carb cleaner to clean the connection at the tank to the hose, and at the hose to the engine - no change.
I took the fuel pump off, completely disassembled and cleaned every part, put it back together and started the engine - no change!

At this point the engine is still running fine, apparently it is getting just enough fuel. So I shut it down and called it good enough deciding that a carburetor rebuild and all new fuel lines and tank are in the boat's future.

And of course there is no wind anyway so we hang out at the dock, enjoy the beautiful warm day, talk with our neighbors and such.

Now to get to the bbd affliction. What is BBD you ask? Well it is an insidious disease that most boat owners suffer from it is .... Bigger Boat disease! Yes most boat owners whether they will admit to it or not Long for, lust for, or just plain dream about that bigger boat, that will get them to those far off places. Have all the storage that they need, be comfortable to stay on for indefinite periods of time, etc..
Well on our dock is an older Coronado 35 center cockpit sailboat. She is a beast of a boat, she's got like 4' of freeboard, large windows on the sides, her cabin takes up all of the space fore to aft, the cockpit actually sit's above the galley and head.
Well this boat is pretty neglected and the tags on her bow are from 07' I had asked the harbor master about her, always sniffing around for a possible deal and was told that the owner never comes around but pay's the slip fee's on time every month.
That was all I thought about it at the time. Well while were were pulling back into the dock on Saturday the owner was on the mast hanging a "For Sale" sign. I called over to him, and asked him how much he was going to sell her for. He answered back $8,000.00
Wow what a price, I've looked online at these boats and they are usually well over $20,000 in worse shape than this one. I tied the Catalina up and walked over talking to the owner, I got the tour, God this thing is huge inside. Over 6' of headroom throughout a very large aft berth, and a nice V birth with vanity sink. Large galley and Bath, with shower. She needs a lot of work, but man what a boat, not a racer but a serious blue water cruiser. Not at all what I'm looking for right now, but what I would love to have in about 3 years. I brought the admiral over to check it out and she was impressed, but of course being the more realistic of the two of us, and not afflicted with BBD, put the nix on the boat. Right now with Arnolds assault on state workers and the slow down in the home improvement market just the increase in slip fee's would be a challenge much less payments on the new boat, and all of the deferred maintenance she would need. So here I am home from the weekend cruising Coronado 35 websites, boy I've got it bad.