The Lake Where You Live

Car trouble is never fun. Boat trouble is worse. It’s tough to enjoy the lake where you live when the boat engine won’t start.

I had that experience just recently. For a few previous days when I turned the key to start the outboard on our pontoon, the starter had worked somewhat reluctantly. This time, as I prepared to take the boat out for a Secchi disc water-clarity reading, it gave just one feeble crank, followed by a muffled groan. There seemed no reason the battery should be worn down, since it is new and the boat has an alternator that constantly charges it.

Being that I don’t own a pontoon trailer, a repair could mean having our dealer come and pick up the boat, at considerable cost, and during the busy season that might not happen for a while. The boat has a trolling motor, but that’s a poor substitute for navigating a 180-acre lake. 

So after some email consulting with an employee at the dealer, I went to work exploring home-grown remedies. I’m nobody’s mechanic, but because the symptoms pointed toward a battery problem, a few simple measures suggested themselves.

I first borrowed a battery tester from neighbor Denny Thompson. The trolling motor and starter batteries both tested as good — no surprise, since both were only three months old. Next I ran a long string of extension cords, some 200 feet, down our 63 steps, along the lakefront path, and out onto the pier.

I took along my portable battery charger, connected it to the trolling motor battery, and brought it up to 100 percent charge. Then I tested the trolling motor, which I had not used for about two years. It worked, so I can count on it for emergency power.

Then I hooked the charger to the starter battery; the display reported 87 percent charge. That should have been plenty to operate the starter, so I doubted that restoring full charge would make a difference. Still, I left the charger connected and went to town on some errands.

When I returned to the pier a couple of hours later the green light on the charger indicated the battery was at full capacity. Fearing disappointment, I turned the key; the starter cranked with extreme vigor, and in seconds the outboard rumbled to life.

I’m not sure why 13 percentage points of charge should make such a massive difference, but it did. And when I tried it again the next day the result was the same — immediate start. So just possibly, in the event some sort of current leak is weakening the battery, or the alternator is fading, I can get through the season with periodic recharging and let the folks at the dealer diagnose the trouble come fall.

And if the starter should fail while I’m halfway across the lake on a fishing venture, I can depend on the trolling motor to get me home. So for the time being, as a practical matter, the problem is solved, or at least so it appears.

I’m glad, because soon daughter Sonya, son-in-law Chad and grandsons Tucker and Perrin are coming for a four-day visit. It just would not do for them to be denied access to fishing and to long, slow afternoon cruises under the Bimini top.

Ted Rulseh is a writer, author and lake advocate who lives on Birch Lake in Oneida County. His new book, “Ripple Effects,” has been released by UW Press. You can learn about it by visiting his website at https://thelakeguy.net.