When chartering sailboats overseas a dinghy with a small outboard engine is almost always provided and it is almost always towed behind when the sailboat is a monohull.  In places like BVI, the engine us usually left on the dinghy because the passages are relatively short and the seas mild.  When doing passages in other places, like The Windward Antilles, it’s better to remove the engine from the dinghy and clamp it to a mounting plate installed on the stern rail of the sailboat.  It’s more trouble taking the engine on and off the dinghy but less risk of dunking the engine underway and it’s less drag towing the dinghy without the engine on it.  

We were anchored in Charleston Bay at Canouan Island in The Grenadines (Windward Antilles) after one such passage.  Most of the crew was busy with something down below and my wife was sitting in the cockpit.  Although normally a 2-or-3-person job, I thought I’d put the engine back on the dinghy by myself since most of the crew seemed busy and my wife isn’t able to climb around the boat and lift things like dinghy engines.  

With the dinghy tied up behind the boat and after getting the engine into the dinghy I was lowering it to the transom when a little wave hit the front of the dinghy.  That was it.  The engine went over the transom with me right after it.  I had some very quick thoughts:  If I let go of this engine it’s going to the bottom.  If I hang onto it, I’m going to the bottom with it.  If I can hang onto the dinghy and the engine, maybe I can save both.  I was just able to get my fingers over the top of the dinghy transom.  At this point my wife noticed me and screamed.  I yelled to her, “Get Rob!” one of the crew who was inside the cabin at the time.  Later I found out Rob didn’t want to come up just then because when he heard my wife scream, he though it was because I was getting frisky with her.  

He did come out and jumped into the dinghy to help pull the engine out of the water.   I had heard of people getting engines running again after a dunking but had never done it myself.  We brought the engine back up onto the boat and mounted it on the stern rail pad, took the engine cover off and sprayed it down, first with fresh water from the swim step shower, then with lubricating spray.  We also removed the spark plug and sprayed the inside of the cylinder.  After about 15 minutes of pulling, it through with the starter to get the water out of the inside and spraying additional lube into the spark plug hole as well as on the spark plug, the engine first sputtered and then ran as well as ever.  We put it back on the dinghy; this time working together.