Just Do It!
Brian and Kirsten driving home to Samba after a day of swimming
If you’ve ever owned a boat, you know BOAT stands for “Break Out Another Thousand”. We like to call thousands “boat bucks” these days. It makes us feel a little better when we have to buy a new part that costs exponentially more, just because it belongs on the water instead of land. New engines cost a lot of boat bucks.
We’ve been sitting at a really beautiful anchorage on the north side of Gibson Island, that we’ve fondly nicknamed “Horsey Cove”. On one side we have a picturesque view of a horse farm that butts up directly to the water. On the other side we have a wooded island with eagles flying overhead. We’ve had a lot of time to go through the seven stages of grief because of the engine debacle.
Our view from our anchorage, overlooking a horse farm at Gibson Island
After calling nearly every boat part store in North America, we have come to the conclusion that a new exhaust manifold is not an option for us. And even if it was, we would not feel comfortable taking our 40-year-old engine on the type of sailing/boating we plan to do. Which leaves us with another dilemma. Do we install a new engine now? What type do we install? How expensive is it and is there anyone who can install it?
At the time of this writing, we are at (what we hope is) the tail end of a global pandemic. And during the last year and a half, a lot of people have discovered that boating is a safe, fun, and socially distant activity. Supply chain disruptions, labor shortages, and increased demand have created a challenge for trying to get any sort of boat work done lately. We live in one of the most popular boating destinations in the world, which means that there are a lot of very qualified and experienced boat mechanics on the Chesapeake Bay. But this also means that everyone is fully booked for the foreseeable future. One boat yard we called said, “Oh yes, we’d be happy to get you a new engine installed around Halloween.”
However, the sailing gods must be looking down on us because we found one boat yard who happens to have an opening for the next couple of weeks to do a repower. Given this opening and the fact that Beta Marine has a model 38 (the type of engine we are looking to install) in stock, we’ve decided to move forward with a new engine for Samba.
As we were swimming around contemplating whether or not to spend the money for a new engine, I just kept thinking about Shia Labeouf’s inspirational speech and what he would say in this situation.
We’ve come this far, what’s a few more boat bucks? We think Shia would agree.
