Thursday, December 5 – slept in and left figuring to go down the ICW. Added a half quart of oil to the engine, the dipstick is a bit wonky but it appeared to be at the low end of the range. The charging system does not instill confidence and plus the wind is forecast to drop so I decided on the ICW as the next inlet is a long haul. As I wend by the inlet at St Augustine, the engine accelerated on it’s own and let out a big puff of smoke. After a few tense moments, it settled down. I returned to Camachee Cove marina and checked the oil, it was overfull. I drained all of the oil so I could add the specified 3 quarts and got a better understanding of the oil levels. It’s a long story but because the crankcase is sealed it’s hard to get an accurate oil level reading so evidently some oil found it’s way in to the cylinders and caused the unexpected sudden acceleration. After searching the internet, I found the exact same thing happened to another boater with the same engine. So I will monitor closely the oil level but feel good about the engine now. The only question I have now is the charging system, I need to fiddle with it to make sure it does charge for sure at least the engine starting battery.