What, Luck?

When I was having it out with the Port Captain, I heard a kinda' distress call on my VHF radio.

It was the sailboat TICO 3 miles out, with a bad diesel water pump. They had been drifting for 25 hours on the light winds we have in these parts sometimes. They were looking for a tow in. My diesel was apart with a cooling problem too, and an appointment with the Port Captain. All I could do was acknowledge their hail, and wish them luck. No one else was on channel.

When I got back to the anchorage several hours later, Bill and Jo-Anne on TICO were anchored near me and I stopped on my way to BLISS to see how they were.

Bill said he was ordering a new water pump and asked if I knew the best way to get it to the boat, and I said, "Sure, send it to Nogales. When I go north to get my paperwork sorted out this week I'll bring it back with me." What luck.

Bill looked at my dinghy and said, "Hey! We've got the same outboard! I love my Nissan, it starts 1st pull every time..." Hmmmmm.

Yesterday, my outboard went down, and I called the mechanic, Adel, this morning to get the verdict... "It's the impeller, " he said. "Do you have a spare?" I said, "I'll call you back."

I hailed TICO on the radio, and sure enough, Bill had a couple of spares and was happy to loan one to me. He launched his dink, drove over, and together we ran into the beach where Adel was waiting with the old impeller.

The vanes were still intact, but the entire part had spun off it's shaft, resulting in two parts and not one. I handed the spare to Adel, who promised the motor would be back at 5 pm, ready to go.

Bill said that he and Jo-Anne were coming to the beach at five so they could catch a guitarist at Coconuts Restaurant tonight, and would tow my dinghy and me to the beach. I said I'll join them tonight at Coconuts 'cause I'd like to hear this guy too.

Then I jumped on the internet from BLISS and ordered two complete water pump kits for the outboard. One for TICO and a spare for me. It was $90 including shipping to Nogales.

Everybody is happy except the Port Captain, but that's HIS problem...