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On Sunday, my wife and I took our boat for a little cruise. For those familiar with the Stuart area, we launched out of sandsprit and first went to St. Lucie Inlet State Park. Since I installed the simrad Go7 I wanted to make sure it was working right as it was not initially showing me depth. Pulling up to the dock, the motor stalled but instantly started back up. I didn't think much of it and thought maybe I just pulled the kill switch out or something. I tinkered with my simrad and got it working better so we continued south. We hit just about the Hobe Sound bridge and decided to make our way back north. Our plan was to swing by the Stuart sandbar then probably head back to the ramp. Being Mother's Day it was get more and more crowded as time went on. We initially got in the water at about 8:15am.
On the way back north we hit the second are where you could go 25mph and the boat appeared to be bogging a bit. As I was getting passed I wanted to give it more gas but it seemed the engine just wouldn't go...mind you have a 140hp on the back of a 17, no reasons as to why i shouldn't have easily gotten into the 30s. Then the motor lost all rpms but didn't stall, I pulled back the throttle and tried giving it some gas and it did it again. I decided to head to the dock going no-wake speed. It was not to be, motor died and wouldn't restart. Of coarse, we were right in the middle of the channel and the wind was pushing us sideways. At this moment, thankfully no boats were coming. We were about 1/2 mile from the "crossroads." I immediately called seatow on my cell phone and gave them our position. They said they were about 45-1 hour away as they were quite busy.
I then dropped our trolling motor and with a little fiddling I was able to get it going and backed up our of the channel. I then threw the anchor and we waited. I noticed a bit of oil on my transom. I tried the motor once or twice and it initially did nothing then it'd sound like it'd start then die. So we made the best of it, threw our fishing lines out (nothing biting) and waited.
About 90 minutes later, Seatow showed up and towed us back to Sandsprit. The capt was really cool and even helped us load the boat on the trailer. I got his number and will hire him when my boat is back running to teach me the ropes of driving a boat.
Upon arriving back home, I noticed a nice little pool of oil under the engine. I tried to take a picture of where it was accumulating prior to dripping on the floor. Motor is an 03 Suzuki DF140 with about 190 hours and heavy corrosion. My plan is to save money throughout the summer and contact Ole in the fall for an F115 repower. Just stinks to lose the boat for the summer. We are going to plan a couple fishing charters.
We are thankful that the boat broke down in the ICW and not in the crossroads or when we were heading to the sandbar as we'd have to cross the St Lucie Inlet where it can get very rough with boat traffic.
Boat fuel tank is full with about 35 gallons of Non-Ethanol gas. Anything I need to do to it if I don't use it for 4-6 months?
Thanks for reading guys.
On the way back north we hit the second are where you could go 25mph and the boat appeared to be bogging a bit. As I was getting passed I wanted to give it more gas but it seemed the engine just wouldn't go...mind you have a 140hp on the back of a 17, no reasons as to why i shouldn't have easily gotten into the 30s. Then the motor lost all rpms but didn't stall, I pulled back the throttle and tried giving it some gas and it did it again. I decided to head to the dock going no-wake speed. It was not to be, motor died and wouldn't restart. Of coarse, we were right in the middle of the channel and the wind was pushing us sideways. At this moment, thankfully no boats were coming. We were about 1/2 mile from the "crossroads." I immediately called seatow on my cell phone and gave them our position. They said they were about 45-1 hour away as they were quite busy.
I then dropped our trolling motor and with a little fiddling I was able to get it going and backed up our of the channel. I then threw the anchor and we waited. I noticed a bit of oil on my transom. I tried the motor once or twice and it initially did nothing then it'd sound like it'd start then die. So we made the best of it, threw our fishing lines out (nothing biting) and waited.
About 90 minutes later, Seatow showed up and towed us back to Sandsprit. The capt was really cool and even helped us load the boat on the trailer. I got his number and will hire him when my boat is back running to teach me the ropes of driving a boat.
Upon arriving back home, I noticed a nice little pool of oil under the engine. I tried to take a picture of where it was accumulating prior to dripping on the floor. Motor is an 03 Suzuki DF140 with about 190 hours and heavy corrosion. My plan is to save money throughout the summer and contact Ole in the fall for an F115 repower. Just stinks to lose the boat for the summer. We are going to plan a couple fishing charters.
We are thankful that the boat broke down in the ICW and not in the crossroads or when we were heading to the sandbar as we'd have to cross the St Lucie Inlet where it can get very rough with boat traffic.
Boat fuel tank is full with about 35 gallons of Non-Ethanol gas. Anything I need to do to it if I don't use it for 4-6 months?
Thanks for reading guys.
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