No more schlepping around with Dinghy in Tow and Outboard not performing !!

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We were fed up with having a low performing to no performing outboard. The anxiety that sits deep within the butterflies in your stomach everytime you pull the pull cord. Waiting, wondering... will it work? Why doesn't it Work? We *JUST* had it serviced. We were seriously fed up with WTH and WTF moments.

As you might be able to imagine, having a good dinghy and reliable outboard are paramount in this cruising type of lifestyle. We need it, and use it, ALL the time. It needs to work, ALL the time!

"Remember to bring the handheld" we'd remind ourselves, if we were going anywhere, and more often than not, given its lacklustre performance, only one of us was going somewhere because there was just not enough juice in it for both of us (and provisions) to be out and about. And forget about having guests onboard, and going snorkelling. Sigh.

The Capt'n had spent more than a few serious hours tweaking and checking, wondering and swearing. We'd been boatbound for one too many hours as we financialized our way towards something new vs repairing, yet again.

Truth be told, we'd had the outboard for 6 years. And six years in a salty environment will sure do serious wonders on boat parts. And perhaps, we'd somehow neglected it. And we'd thrown money towards fixing it, again and again. And with the last few years of expenses, we were seriously starting to believe that it was a Lemon, built on a Friday Afternoon.

In Nassau, we toured around the stores, checking live on what was previously online photos and research. We opted to stay with a two stroke. And with one fell swoop we doubled our power (knowing that in our not too distant future we'd be upsizing our dinghy as well) and with that said, we signed on the dotted line.

Which resulted in one helluva huge cardboard box being delivered right to our slip in Palm Cay Marina.



Beautiful shiny new things come in large cardboard boxes.



We were pretty darn excited about the whole thing.

The next morning we sailed back towards the many islands of the Exumas. And here, here the many beaches and creeks were calling our names, and the shiny new outboard happy to take us there.





No Longer are we up the Creek resorting to using our Paddles to get back. We're now happily exploring ALL the creeks with our new Yamaha 15HP Outboard.



She starts with one pull. She purrs like a kitten. With way more oil in the mix than necessary she's kinda smoking at the moment. It feels so good for both of us to be going places, together. It feels so good to be driving again. To be up on plane again, at only half throttle.



Zoom - zoom.