Over the weekend (Saturday to be exact) we decided to try the tender out and take it for a little tootle up the river. It's a little fibreglass one with a blow up bit around the top of it. It has a seat, a couple of oars and a 10hp (yes 10!) engine (do you see how technical I'm becoming!?)

All went well... for a while. The engine started easily and ran sweetly as we headed out along the river and checked out the mangroves. Then, about 2-3 kilometres from the boat, the motor spluttered and conked out. We stared at each other and laughed... it was so typical!! Dave checked the engine and noticed a little smoke rising from it. It had overheated.

As he pondered what to do next (as we slowly drifted towards the sea with the tide) he realised that he hadn't opened the breather valve in the fuel tank. Problem solved!

No.... that didn't work, so I set to pumping the fuel bulb to try and get petrol to the engine. He looked down and realised that he was stepping on the fuel line... hahaha. How funny.... it was sure a hoot. How we laughed!! Now the engine would work... for sure.

Uh... no. Try as we might the engine would start only to stop after a hundred metres and the tide would then pull us back to where we started. It began to look dire (although if the truth be known, the tide was wayyyyyyyy out and we actually could have walked back but the bottom of the river was icky with crab holes.)

We chucked out the anchor and sat and pondered and giggled and pondered some more. Each time he started the engine, I had the anchor ready to hurl over the side just in case, and just in case always happened.

Luckily, after about half an hour of getting nowhere fast, a lovely family in an Austral 20 sailed past and asked if we needed help. 'Um.. yes please' was the answer. We were towed back to the marina (although it was a bit like a chauffeur service as we lazed back and did nothing until we got back to the boat.

So, we have a great little tender with a crappy engine (more money... aaaggghhhh!) and I got burnt as well, but it was a laugh. :) I wish I'd taken the camera.

Cheers
Terry