The next day we launched the boat at the head of the St. John's River at Lake Monroe, since I knew the ramp and water well. We did not bother with raising the mast, just motored into a little cove within sight of the ramp and anchored for the night. When we woke up in the morning there was a thick fog and the boys thought we had drifted out to sea. I knew we had not moved a foot since I had set the anchor alarm on the Lowrance GPS. The boys woke up and immediately started fishing. We then pulled anchor and motored to the Sanford Marina and walked to a great German restaurant for brunch. The ETEC started cutting out at around 3,000 RPMs after about 15 minutes. It had hesitated during the shake down cruise with the Sharps the day before. I opened the gas cap and pumped up the primer bulb and it started back up. We motored into the marina and walked to the restaurant for a great meal. Then we walked back to the boat and started to motor back to the ramp. About halfway back the motor started to sputter and I just kept pumping the fuel bulb till we landed back at the dock.
That week I called Laura Sharp and she said I could bring it back to Stewart to have the ETEC mechanic look at it or take it to my local ETEC dealer to have it looked at. I opted for my local ETEC dealer, which probably was a mistake on my part. They had it for a few days to 'run diagnostics' and said everything was fine. I told them it was not fine and so we arranged to do a live test at a local lake to recreate the problem. The local ETEC mechanic backed the boat into the lake and we ran the boat and it started to hesitate and quit running. He said I did not have the vent open all the way and that the fuel locker lid was blocking the tank vent. It was clear that if it was not the actual motor he did not want to work on it. And according to him the computer told him it was not the motor.
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