I was thinking about your stolen boat on and off all day, FishLife! What a bummer it was stolen first, but on all days the one you get up early and planning to go fish it!! Sickening.
If someone stole my boat (my baby- I don't have kids, I have a boat) I'd lose it! Sounds like you had a lock on it at least, but they can be bypassed. Heads up to all boat owners from this incident anyway, keep your boat out of sight if possible or maybe drape some heavy logging chain around the wheels with a couple of locks for some added deterrence from the ever present tweaker army. I keep mine in the garage and feel like I'm lucky to be able to do so, when on an overnight fishing trip, I break out lots of chain and wrap the boat and engines up tighter than a wrapped K15 kwikie. My buddies think I'm paranoid and I suppose I am. I still sleep poorly on those nights, but at least there's lots of chain that makes NOISE if someone is messing with it.
Glad you have some guys keeping an eye out for it up there. I heard that you can notify the outboard company (Honda in your case), and if the engine comes in for whatever reason they can spot that it's stolen. Worth looking into.
If I still lived in the EUG, you'd be the next guy I invited out fishing for those nooks at the coast.
Best,
