A lot of things have happened to our Evinrude E-TEC 90 since we repowered with it a year ago. In reviewing our notes, the Vessel Log, and the Scorecard, it seemed like it might be a good idea to summarize what's happened.

Overall Performance

• Outstanding fuel economy, especially when trolling
  
  
• Lower oil usage
  
  
• Quieter operation - not whisper quiet, but quieter than our previous engine
  
  
• Instant starts

Problems - Our Fault

• Broken skeg - repaired
  
  
• Damaged fuel pumps (2) - due to water and sediment in the fuel

Problem - TBD as to Cause

• A "Low Oil" alarm is triggered when the boat lands hard in certain conditions. A software patch was issued, and the problem improved, but it is not completely fixed yet.

Other Comments
To be determined - the validity of Evinrude's claims for a 3 year / 300 hour service interval.

Parts availability was questionable in some cases

Evinrude / Bombardier's Customer Service department has been very accomodating. No complaints so far.

The folks at Big Game Fishing Journal are publishing a new magazine called Fishing Gourmet, subtitled The Magazine for the Angling Seafood Lover. We recently received their 2005/2006 Winter Buyer's Guide, and have to say that it's an interesting read.

The editorial content is about 50% recipes, and 50% fishing articles. Aside from the great recipes, this issue featured several interesting articles:

"Dolphin Forecasting" by Capt. Jim Sharpe - has some pretty specific recommendations on how to predict when dolphin (mahi-mahi or dorado) will feed in his waters along the East Coast. He takes into account wind direction, moon phase, tides, weather systems, water clarity, salinity and water temperature.

"Attract the Pack" by Capt. Fred Archer - discusses how to set yourself up for multiple tuna hookups while trolling offshore. He covers spreader bars versus daisys chains, setting up the spread, and how to achieve and handle multiple hookups.

"Speed Kills" by Capt. George LaBonte - covers super-high speed trolling techniques for wahoo

Fishing Gourmet is available on newsstands now for $2.99. Worth a look, then a trip tot he market...

The January/February 2006 issue of Pacific Coast Sportfishing has a great article by Bob Hoose titled "Cabo Blues - Hawaiian Style". Bob had the opportunity to pre-fish the Bisbee's Black and Blue Tournament in Cabo San Lucas with Captain Steve Lassley, Pete Groesbeck, and Capt. Randy Parker from Kona. He got a chance to pass on a number of interesting tips from the team, including:

• Use clear or blue lines for fishing marlin. While Hi-Vis lines work OK for trolling, the team felt that the line will put off marlin and tuna if you have to switch to bait.
  
  
• Many Hawaiian marlin lures are rigged using skirts made with auto upholstery vinyl, rather than the more popular soft plastic octopus skirts. The lures seem to swim and smoke better with these types of skirts, and the team believes that the skirts also slide through a marlin's mouth more easily, reasulting in more hookups.
  
  
• Marlin lures should be fished on taglines to improve hookup ratios
  
  
• The Bomboy Bullet was the hot ticket for just about everything.
   

Earlier in 2005, the American Heart Association updated its recommendations for Cardio-Pulmonary Resuscitation (CPR). If you are trained in CPR, you should review the new guidelines, which are available in a number of places (see below). Basically, the revised procedures call for:

• Faster (100 / minute), deeper compressions, while allowing the chest to recoil between compressions
  
  
• An emphasis on sustained compression cycles, with minimal interruptions
  
  
• A compression / breath ratio of 30:2 for all victims, from infant to adult, for single rescuer CPR
  
  
• Rescue breaths should take 1 second, and the chest should rise visibly

The changes are a result of studies which indicate that under the old guidelines, chest compressions, especially if performed by lay persons, were not as effective as they could be in restarting and maintaining circulation. The emphasis is now on maintaining circulation, and less on rescue breaths.

Obviously, we are not medical experts and you need to consult with certified CPR trainers for specifics. But we thought you ought to know that the changes have occured, and you should refresh your skills.

Some links:

American Heart Association "Currents" newsletter, Winter 2005-2006 issue

American Red Cross Newsletter

Click for larger image

Click for larger image

When our 2006 boat registration renewal showed up, there were two stickers and a brochure inside. The brochure warned about the dangers of carbon monoxide (CO) poisoning, and said we needed to place these stickers on the hull near the helm and the transom:

This information came at an interesting time. We had read recently about a couple of carbon monoxide deaths linked to on-board generators, and we'd been wondering why Evinrude is making such a big deal about the low CO emissions of the E-TEC.

We hopped on the Internet to do a little Googling, and came away with some surprising (to us, anyway) information:

It turns out CO poisoning has been a topic of concern for a number of regulatory bodies, including the US Coast Guard, the National Institutes of Health, the American Boat & Yacht Council, and the California Department of Boating and Waterways.

Investigations of several drownings that occured while "teak surfing" (letting a boat tow you around while hanging on to a swimstep) revealed that the victims had actually succumbed to CO poisoning from the engine exhaust prior to drowning. In a similar fashion, there were several other cases of people drowning when they swam near the exhaust of their boats, or as they sat near the transom while the boat was running at low speed.

Now that people are aware of the problem, there is some suspicion that a significant number of drowning deaths are actually a result of CO poisoning, but previously no one thought about testing drowning victims for CO poisoning.

How does this affect fishermen? It turns out that there are a number of situations where CO from engine exhaust can accumlate in a fishing boat, including: idling while at a dock, exhaust from your neighbor's boat in the next slip, leaving the motor running while out of gear, or while slow trolling with a slow following breeze. Running an onboard gas generator can also cause problems.

I don't know if this is much ado about nothing, but it's definitely worth being aware of. Better safe than sorry! 

Here are some related links:

US Coast Guard Advisory on CO Poisoning:
http://www.uscgboating.org/command/co.htm

Especially this page:
http://www.uscgboating.org/command/co/accumulate.htm

American Boat & Yacht Council:
http://www.uscgboating.org/command/co/files/abyc_th-22_ed_report.pdf

Centers for Disease Control:
http://www.cdc.gov/co/

California Department of Boating and Waterways:
http://www.dbw.ca.gov/codanger.asp

Basically, the poster reported an incident in which the stationary mount for his EPIRB cracked. This allowed the magnet which deactivates the EPIRB (to prevent accidental activation) to separate enough to allow the unit to be triggered by spray.

The only indication they had of the problem came when they were hailed by the Coast Guard as they returned home after a fishing trip.

Might be a good idea to check your EPIRB mount!

• Free divers usually stake out an area and wait for the YFT to come to them. Favorite spots are islands or underwater ridges in 20 fathoms or less. The most productive zone for them is where the resident baitfish on the bank meet with the more migratory bait like mackerel and skipjack tuna. This is usually somewhere upcurrent from the structure, anywhere from 100 yards to a quarter mile.
  
  
• While smaller yellowfin tuna segregate by size, schools of fish over 50 pounds tend to have mixed sizes, with the larger fish 10-20 feet deeper than the other fish, and farther back in the school.
  
  
• Free divers confirm what we've known for a while - tuna and other pelagic fish orient towards floating debris, but are usually not directly under it. YFT can be several hundred yards off the debris.
  
  
• When YFT and dolphin swim together, the tuna do the "heavy lifting" of chasing down and ravaging baitfish. The dolphin follow the school and pick off the leftovers. So fish well ahead of working dolphin!