We were invited by friends and marina neighbors to go out and do a little swimming just behind Brady
Island. We were all going to take the boats over and raft up and potentially spend the night. Like our friend Murphy that joins us, I was worried I might have a problem with mine starting as i know I have an issue with the starter on LastAffair. We had our plan B to ride over with Keith and Deb on their Grand Banks or take the dinghy over there and just use that to get there.

Of course, it happened, we picked up all of our groceries and had everything packed, and I couldn’t get my started to engage. I went out to tell Keith, and he was also having an issue with theirs and was vapor locked on the fuel system. He popped down in our boat and suggested that we rotate the engine manually past the compression stroke and she engaged and fired right up.

Off we were heading out just about 10 minutes behind David and Leigh on their boat. We took the opportunity to pump out as we left the marina and tied up to David and Leigh’s boat on their starboard side to our port side.

We swam and had a great time in the water with about a dozen other boats in the cove there as well. I was a little worried about swimming in the water here because we have seen gators in the marina, so I knew they were around, but all the locals tell us “they are more afraid of you than you are of them” I might take that bet, but I figured we were all good.

So off we jumped from the stern and just relaxed on some pool noodles and floats. Even McKinlee was enjoying herself with her life jacket on and her mesh floating platform. We forgot to put a swimmer diaper on her before she got in the water and left her in the regular kind. Those things will continue to absorb water until they pop and ooze all of the moisture absorbing gel stuff out of all the seams. The diaper was SOOO huge. It was kind of funny.

We also took a little dinghy tour up into the bayous around this area. It was a great day, and we had a blast. We were thinking of maybe staying over the night out there at anchorage, but with the storm that was rolling in we decided to head on back. I of course was not able to start the engine again and fought with it for a good hour and a half. Keith came back to the anchorage in his dinghy to help me get it going because I was not able to repeat our easy fix earlier that afternoon.

It finally got going but it was sure that this starter needs replacing before the next trip out. We are looking forward to maybe doing the same thing next weekend but staying out all weekend.
I have a the new starter ordered and it should be ready to pick up on Tuesday this week. I will have to work quickly on Thursday night when I get back in town or Friday morning so that it is ready to go for a run out on Saturday.

I have an upcoming video series on the removal and replacement of the Starter on a Perkins 4-108 engine. I am also hoping that I may be able to do a further video detailing the replacing of the starter solenoid which I am thinking of doing to keep as a spare on board.

In the video below you can see a little tour of a bayou off the Tchefuncte River and also anchoring up with friends near Brady Island for a relaxing swim and lunch.