Got towed in Friday Night

[TwoBallScrewBall]

Went out fishing Friday night. Me and two buddies. We started off about 1 mile out from the ramp and a hot spot, killed the blues, and I also caught a 9 pound striper which I kept. Decided to head across the bay and see what was going on over there. Stopped about 3/4 of the way across where a bunch of boats were fishing and drifted for a while, one of my friends caught an 11 pound weakfish. Kept that one. Nothing else going on so we headed over the rest of the way to the channel near the opposite shore. About 5 miles from the ramp. Fished for about 45 minutes and decided to go back to the first spot where we were making a killing. Go to start the boat, and it just cranks and cranks. Usually starts in an instant. Cranked some more. Nothing. Pulled the engine cover. Checked spark - OK. Checked fuel to carb - OK. Messed with the engine for about an hour cheecking this and that, not much happening. Finally got it to run but it would only run in Neutral if you babied it and kept it at about 2000-2500Rpm. Tried a few quick shifts into drive but it just kept dying. Seemed to be starving for fuel. So it's about 10:00pm now and my buddies have to work the next day. I decide to take the top of the carb off and check the main jets for a clog. The bowl had tons of varnish flakes in it. I used paper towels to soak up the gas in the bowl and clean it out the best I could. Also pulled out the jets and made sure they were clear. Got it all back together and there was a little improvement but not much. I was able to get it in gear after a bunch of stalls, and we made it about a mile or so before the engine died again and would not get going again, was back to square 1 where it would only run in Neutral. Dropped anchor again. Now I have no VHF on the boat (or should I say HAD, as I'm getting one before I go out again) so I hailed some folks on channel 17 on the CB, which I do have. First they thought we were messing around and would not call the coast guard for us. There was recently a guy locally who created a false emergency, had the helicopters out and all, and they though I was another one of those. Finally a guy from my town who happened to be listening said if I was really out there to light a flare and if he saw it he would make the call, so I did. He saw it and radioed the orange boat. They sent out a boat (about 1:00am by now) and made sure we weren't dying. They said that they had to radio for a commercial tow but if there was no response then they would pull us back to the ramp. They made three broadcasts to sea tow and no response, so they pulled us in about 1/2 hour later. Made it back fine, about 2:00am. Funny thing was that apparently there were a lot of people listening in on the entire CB exchange, including the cops, and quite a crowd gathered at the bulkhead. From where we were on the bay we could see the red flashing lights of the police, and the guy on the CB with us was there and we could see him blinking his headlights at us. Was definitely an interesting night. <br /><br />Rebuilt the carb tonight, will get it on tomorrow and see how she runs. <br /><br />Here's a pic of me and the fish when I got home....<br /><br />

 

[Boomyal]

Re: Got towed in Friday Night

Reminds me of the time (70's) I was off the coast at Malibu (out of Marina Del Rey) when the outdrive seized up. We were a couple of hundred yards off the beach and kept drifting closer to the back side of the breakers. <br /><br />Well as luck would have it there was a Goodyear blimp circling around a couple of miles up the coast. Every time he turned toward us I lit off a red flare. Did that three time but no response.<br /><br />Now we are really getting close to the breakers and we are making plans to abandon ship when off in the distance comes a little cabin cruiser beating his way in our direction. I got up on the deck and began to wave my red jacket liner around above my head.<br /><br />The little boat made it's way to us and asked if that had been us lighting off the flares. He had a radio and told us that the blimp saw us but thought we were just fooling around.<br /><br />After a relay of three lifeguard boats and an inspection by the Sheriff (to make sure we had not just run out of gas) at the entrance to the break water we were safely back at the launch ramp. <br /><br />No fish that day.

 

[TwoBallScrewBall]

Re: Got towed in Friday Night

Well, rebuilt the carb and the damn boat did the exact same thing. So I checked spark again and now it's looking orange. Not knowing how old any of this stuff was, I went ahead and replaced the coil, condenser, rotor, cap, and points, and whala, she fired right up and purred like a kitten. And my acceleration bog seems to be gone now too, thanks to the new accelerator pump in the carb kit. I'm going to try to hit the water tomorrow and see how it runs off the muffs.