It had to happen eventually, Sanlucar de Guadiana was NOT the place I had expected it to happen but happen it did. After nearly five years of constant cruising we have been the victims of theft.
Namely our utterly reliable Suzuki 2 horse power two stroke outboard engine.
I have stolen the title for this section of the blog from Martina who is a fellow boatie who has also suffered at the hands of the local outboard thieves. She has lived on the Guadiana for three years or there about aboard Carina of Devon , a Westerly Conway. We informed the council in the townhall who told us to inform the Guardia Civil. Upon finding the police station we discovered it was closed. It would however be open the following day.
That just left the insurance people to inform, they sent us a claim form which we printed off and filled in with the outboards serial number etc. As it was a named item on the policy the excess didnt apply and we hopefully would get the insured value of £300.
Then we attempted to source a new engine. Two strokes are no longer for sale in the EU so it would have to be a four stroke. The chandlers at Ayamonte could supply a Parsun, 2 hp for €699, I wasnt keen on a chinese engine as there is very little dealer backup, and a limited spares network. It was also a bit pricey. I tried to source one in Germany which was similar price with delivery but we could get a Yamaha, Honda or Suzuki, I was initially taken with the honda and it was either that or another Suzuki. Our old Suzuki had been a fabulously reliable motor and after a bit of research found one in good old England for £569, I phoned to confirm delivery costs to Spain as they quoted a rather unbelievable £20. Good as there word, well done Marine Superstore!
We arranged for the engine to be delivered to Ayamonte marina. Rosa very kindly came to the Guardia Civil with us to translate and we posted off the completed paperwork to our insurers.
There had been a bit of a spate of outboard thefts and the Guardia Civil said they believed it was people from Portugal coming over tge river. I believe it would make more sense for them to be Spanish with a van, and I have probably seen more crime than the Guardia Civil in Sanlucar de aguadiana!
Less than a week later our engine arrived in Ayamonte and we caught the bus down to Pick it up.
This meant us getting a lift across the river to Portugal to get an early bus to Villa real de San Antonio, which is incidentally a very interesting town, historically its one of the first of the pupose designed "New Towns" based on a grid system. We then had to get the ferry across to Ayamonte. Of course reversing that journey carrying a large and unwieldy box containing our precious new engine was not something we had put much thought into!
we managed to visit our favourite cafe before visiting the chandlers to pick up necessary oils for engine and gearbox (engines don't ship with any oil)
We did get some strange looks, and were actually asked directly by some dutch cyclists on the ferry" what on earth is in the box?"
We should have had it delivered to the post office in Sanlucar but in actual fact when we had arranged delivery we had actually planned to take Dark Tarn downriver, but since then we had decided to stay up the Guardiana for a while longer. The day out in VRSA was very pleasant and we enjoyed an amazingly cheap lunch in a restaurant of fish and chips.
A proper day out!
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