James Bond and peke-peke

Who remembers the classic “Man with a golden gun” with Roger Moore? In 1974, when this film was made, I was not yet born, but a few years later, as a small boy, I watched it with bated breath. In the movie, there was a scene of a chase on the canals of Bangkok. They were speeding through the channels in small boats with engines on very long shafts. In my mind, I was driving one of those speedsters back then. 

Sometime later, we happened to be in Bangkok. My memories revived, and I made the decision that I wanted to drive that kind of boat. Then, in Thailand, I failed, but the dream remained. A few more years later, on another continent and on another great river, this time on Amazon, I found out that a similar boat with protruding engines is a very common means of transportation. 

An opportunity arose quite quickly as our guide Leo had one too.  A few hours into the first day, when we were tracking pink dolphins, I asked if I could relieve him of this hard work. He thought for a moment, as none of his clients had ever asked him that before. He looked me up and down, judging if I could handle it, and… he agreed!

Me, Amazon, and peke-peke! 

Peke-peke is the local name for air-cooled, counterweight-mounted engines with a long shaft extending far beyond the boat. I must admit that being used to a regular outboard engine, steering this thing was really hard. You need to control the immersion of the screw. You can’t make a sudden turn because the shaft is about two meters long and gives quite a lot of resistance. When you hang on top of such a setup, you quickly realize how clever it is! 

On rivers like the Amazon, there are a whole lot of natural floating islands. In addition, a lot of branches, trunks, grasses, and the like. Try taking out and putting back a regular dinghy outboard for an hour or so, and you will see how exhausting it is. The second advantage is immersion. The amount of water equal to the diameter of the propeller is enough. These motors are air-cooled, so taking the propeller out of the water has no effect on its temperature. Not to mention, these are the simplest machines ever, similar to lawnmowers. You can fix it with two wrenches and a screwdriver. 

Leo hasn’t touched the engine for the rest of the day. He sat on the bow, telling Kasia and Vincent about the river, dolphins, and other Tikuna legends, giving orders from time to time on how and where to swim. Oh, we had fun… That’s how, after more than 30 years, I fulfilled another of my mini dreams, and that is what I want to wish everyone who has read to the end of that text 🙂 

Make your dreams come true. The small ones, the big ones, the old ones, and the brand-new ones!