I hate to say it but we have decided to sell Little Star, our dinghy. The longer distances you need to cover to explore in the Pacific and the desire to go fast with guests aboard were our primary motivations. We loved Little Star and it was a hard decision. Crazy to get sentimental over a dinghy, I know, but these things happen.

After looking around quite a bit we ordered a new 12' AB with a 25hp Yamaha 2 stroke from Marine Warehouse. Marine Warehouse is run by Albert in Miami but they have offices in Panama. These guys are fantastic for shipping to Panama and other out of the way destinations (http://www.marinewarehouse.net). We had a very good experience with them.

Some folks had come over to purchase the Yamaha 8 hp outboard today so I put it on their boat and told them that it was a one pull motor. Four hundred pulls later it would not start. Needless to say they didn't buy the motor.

I'm not much of a 2 stroke mechanic but fortunately our neighbors are. Paul and Colin began tearing the thing apart before I could blink an eye. We had thought we were going to be through the canal in a week when we arrived so the outboard had been sitting with fuel in it. Normally you run a 2 stroke out of fuel before laying it up so that the oil in the fuel mix doesn't gunk things up.

After cleaning up the injector nozzle and sprayer the motor looked great. Colin put it back together and it ran like brand new. Cruisers are really cool people. I have now added, "recently serviced by an expert mechanic" to the for sale sign.