We were out on the lake yesterday, and had been riding for an hour or
so. We stopped at a marina that is fairly busy and filled the tank.
While idling back out of the no-wake, the motor died. It didn't want
to restart until I pumped the bulb a couple of times, then it fired
back up for a few seconds, settled into a good idle, then died again.
A couple more of these gyrations, and it took the throttle and down
the lake we went. We were about a 40 minute ride from our slip.

As you might guess, things went downhill. It lasted for maybe 15
minutes at around 3000 rpm, then lost power and died. It ran
progressively shorter periods of time until it would finally not even
start. Sea-Tow to the rescue.

When it died it wasn't abrupt, it slowed down, shook, and sputtered,
as if it had run out of gas. The bulb wasn't collapsed or soft, but
it is strange that at one point you could hit the bulb when it began
to die and it would pick back up for a moment. The boat has a Yamaha
250 four stroke, and is setup with an external Yamaha 10 micron fuel
filter / water separator (spin-on cannister).

After a couple of searches, I find that Yamaha recommends changing the
filter every 50 hours, which is about where I am. Oh, and they say to
carry a spare. So, for grins, I go down to the slip this morning and
pull the filter and dump it into a container. I don't see a bunch of
gunk or water. I re-install it, and after a couple of tries it fires
right up and settles into a nice idle, and proceeds to idle for ten
minutes. Crap, I hate these kinds of problems.

So, I'll pick up a new filter and a spare Tuesday when the dealer
opens up. Any guesses on whether or not that's the real problem? I'd
lean towards it being a heat-related fuel pump issue, except it
happened right after filling. The Sea-Tow operator said that same
marina is where they get their fuel. Probably go back out later today
and run it had for a while. Might as well get my money's worth from
that Sea-Tow membership.