Evinrude on Belay (NOT!) [story by Brad]

For the sake of a slightly more objective viewpoint, I'm writing this episode...

Gay and I decided to mount our gasoline-powered Evinrude (Evie) on our dinghy (instead of the electric Torqueedo we usually use) and play around with it. This was only the second time we had used the gasoline motor on this trip to date, as the electric one had been fine the rest of the time we had wanted a dinghy motor. We proceeded to rig the little crane that we had custom-made by Steve Sands in Seattle. It's a bit complicated but stows in a very small space. We've done this task few enough times that we still have to figure it out again each time. We did so, and were on the phase where the 68-pound motor is suspended on the crane over the water, and the next move is to swing it over above the dinghy transom and lower it. We started to swing it around and I was struggling a bit with a line that put tension on the whole assembly to swing it over to the dinghy (which I occupied at the time). Gay thought that I needed help with my line and proceeded to assist me. I may have cursed or otherwise expressed frustration when SPLASH!, Evie took a dive!! I looked over, shocked, and only saw the top of Evie even with the water's surface! I yelled WTF?!?!? loud enough to be heard back in Seattle (and the whole bay where we were anchored). Gay looked completely shocked. Quickly I asked, "What happened?" She didn't know. I then yelled, "Push the button, push the **** button!!" (Evie was still attached to our electric winch by a couple of overhead blocks (pulleys) and a line that was on the winch.) She did so, and up out of the water Evie popped from her dunking experience. I was very concerned that she had ingested sufficient quantities of salt water to hurt her, but upon mounting and fuel hookup, she fired up on the very first pull! We ran her around the bay to make sure all was well. As to Gay's dropping of the Evinrude, we don't really know what happened, or even why Evie stopped falling into the sea. I did decide, in the future, to use the term, "Evinrude on Belay!" so that Gay knows NOT to let Evie "take the big dive" again (evoking the serious climbing responsibilities of NOT dropping your partner!)!