After having dealt with Enfin and checked all systems successfully it was time to turn my attention to our Bullfrog tender.
10 months on deck is a long time for an outboard, and the boat needed a good wash before I could lower it in the water. One thing leading to another I ended up washing the tender and Enfin's whole decks because since I started it, I might as well finish it.
Once in the water I decided to try and start the engine: I disconnected the small solar panel from the battery, pumped gas a few times, and hit the starter button. I was expecting silence.
I got rewarded by the familiar sound of the Tohatsu starting, and idling completely normally. Water pump was running producing a steady cooling jet, and the oil pressure light switched off to indicate normal oil pressure. Gear box worked fine and soon I was off in the marina, before grabbing a life jacket and heading out in the river to open the engine up a bit. All went well.
I've always been a huge fan of Tohatsu, but this makes me a complete convert. I had done proper preparation before leaving, emptying the carburetor by letting the engine run it out and of course I always treat my gas with stabilizer. The last thing was greasing various points as well as spraying some Corrosion X, then connecting the small solar charger.
Of course now that it has started, my maintenance planning software is alerting me to all the regular maintenance I need doing since the software is assuming a set number of hours each month over the last year. Whilst not exact, I'll still do the normal preventive maintenance soon. Working things on a boat don't stay working long without preventive maintenance.
We love our little tender. It's our transportation mode at anchorage, and is even useful here since we live on an island.