Picking an outboard engine off the transom is easy enough in practice. Just grab it by the lifting ring next to the flywheel and hoist her up. But stick a boat in the tightest corner of the warehouse, surround her by other boats and storage shelving, then block her up so she can't move. Now you see why we stand there dumbly scratching our heads. Not so easy now is it.
Eureka! We've got a giant garage door behind us. Just open the door and drive the fork lift around. Wait, there's a foot of snow blocking access to the door. Get out the shovels. Now this door doesn't want to open, blocked in by snow and frozen ice runoff from the roof. Persistence, persistence. This simple process which should take a matter of minutes takes us the better part of our Wednesday night session.
Worn fork lift tires are certainly not made for snow. We clear away enough snow to maneuver and push the old fork through the ice patches til fork is aligned directly over lifting ring. We doubled a stout double braid nylon line as a harness and hoisted her up slow and steady.
As the hours grow late and freezing cold has long since taken all feeling from our fingers, the fork lift is powered down, the sound of the tunes blaring once again dominate the warehouse. The old Evinrude is snugly lying atop a pallet.
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