I read on the internet that all outboards made after 1970 and over 40 hp share the same transom bolt pattern. This being a 2002 Honda 50 and the previous one being a 1990 Evinrude 45, I assumed that I was all set.

Not so. It seems I may have stumbled on the one combination that doesn’t fit the rule. MY holes don’t align.

Damn.

I discovered this when I went down to the still-raging, storm-tossed dock and tried to get some of the getting-the-boat-actually-going work done. I was almost flipped into sea. Discretion won out and I came back and had lunch. Such is the pace of progress around here.

The lower holes are also under the water line. Seems counter intuitive, doesn’t it? But that is the way it is and so one has to be very careful to seal those bolt holes. And that can’t be done while the boat is in the water. So…………….here we go again…………the boat has to come out.

Damn.

The trouble with that is the tides. You place the boat over the small boat cradle we built in the lagoon (it is under water when the tide is up) and then wait a few hours for the water to drop leaving the boat high and dry. Simple.

But the tides don’t live by my schedule. I have to be there to put the boat on and take it off and I am not keen on getting up at three in the morning to do one or the other. If I wait til Friday (the tide schedule ‘moves’ every day by approximately 45 minutes to one hour), I can do it all at civilized times. Ergo – Friday is the new prediction for launch.

I have plenty to do in the meantime from re-rigging the fuel lines to reconnecting the electrics but even those simple chores are made near impossible when the seas are flipping your boat four feet up and down while it is tied to the dock.

Friday may be optimistic.