Solita To The Rescue. Subtitle: Nothing Is Easy.

First a weather note: The afternoon thunderstorm activity has been too close for comfort the past couple of evenings given last season's lightening strike. Last night the lightening strikes shut down the marina power as well as the power grid in Frontiers (nearby town) and all surrounding areas. We disconnected shore power to Vida Dulce and waited for the storms to pass, crossing our fingers lightening will not strike us twice here, This region is, in theory, nearing the end of the rainy / thunderstorm / hurricane season, yet Mother Nature is known to show flurry to the end. Nonetheless we're hoping she's blown out most of her energy with the Cat 5 Hurricanes farther northeast of here, Harvey, Irma & Maria. Catastrophic damage for those in their paths. Places we visited and enjoyed were devastated, and may very well take years to recover. Our thoughts are with everyone impacted. We hope for a timely end to the stormy season here and elsewhere in the Caribbean.

Charlie & Saundra's (s/v Island Sol) lancha, Solita and Yamaha motor, was left here in the Rio when they sailed s/v Island Sol to Panama last season. Charlie will join us on Vida Dulce later in the month to sell Solita and wrap up his remaining business interests here. Until then, they graciously agree to allow us to pickup & use Solita since our dinghy out of commission.

Charlie arranges for his former marina owner / manager to get Solita ready for our pick up mid-morning. Two things: he's not sure where the gas tank and hose is, and the hose connector is unique to Yamaha. Plus, we'll need a red kill-switch disabler. Sounds pretty straight forward.

Yesterday morning, we walk to town for a couple of days of groceries, nothing too heavy for the 30+ min return walk in hot temps. While I gather things up, Jerry walks / tuktuk's to the local Yamaha dealer to purchase the needed connector however the one they say is the correct part it doesn't look like Charlie described; it looks identical to our Tohatsu fitting.

This morning, Jerry empties our dinghy gas tank into our gas jerry jug so that it can be refilled with the premium gas the 4-stroke Yamaha needs to run smoothly. He takes the red kill-switch disabler too. He gets a marina lancha ride to the gas station to fill the tank and then on to the marina where Solita should be waiting for our arrival. But she's not. The marina has been using her, without permission I should add. She's there but their outboard is still attached so Charlie's motor has to be retrieved from where it is stored (on a neighboring sailboat) and outboards switched out. Then, Charlie is correct, the gas hose connector doesn't work with ours, but it doesn't work with the new Yamaha one either. The issue is the connector on the motor side, so Solita with Jerry onboard is towed to the Yamaha dealer to buy the correct part then towed back to our marina where Jerry installs the new part on the outboard. This takes all morning.

Outboard part installed, gas line connected, many pulls later, the outboard starts. Then quits. Then starts. Then quits. This goes on for a bit before it starts and runs continuously for several minutes. OK, next requirement is locks; lock the outboard to the lancha, and a method to lock the lancha to the dock. We make a couple of cables & several locks from our dinghy & general stash work. With this, we're in business!

Or so we thought... We were looking forward to getting to town for drinking water and heavier provisions like beer & liquor. Plus I need a few things for our evening meal because our fridge quit overnight and what little I'd bought yesterday had to be thrown out this morning and while we're there, we'll have lunch at Sundog. Jerry gets the outboard going but only long enough for us to get a fair distance off the dock. Then it quits and no matter what Jerry does, it will not start again. Even I try a few pulls. No joy. (This is precisely why electric start is for me.) Thankfully we drift back toward the marina rather than away, slowly, slowly, until we're able to pull ourselves back to our dock using the mooring lines of other sailboats crisscross tied to the outer pillars. (Makes me think a portable VHF radio and oars may be helpful while using Solita.). We're hot, tired, hungry and disappointed, especially Jerry who's spent pretty much the entire day getting us operational water transport.

After an hours rest & cool down Jerry tries again. This time the outboard motor starts after only a few pulls. We let it run for awhile. With some trepidation we release from the dock and start to town. This time we make it all of the way to Sundog! I do my quick shopping trip while Jerry orders our late lunches, which are served just a minute before I'm back. When finished with our meal, we put our groceries in Solita, and cross our fingers. Success a second time. We make a last stop to pick up the 5-gallon jug of drinking water before heading back to the marina where it's time for a cool shower and happy hour.

It's nearly impossible to do everything we need to do without water transport so we're happy to have the use of Solita for a few weeks while we sort out our dinghy situation and options.