Mercury Oil Leak?

Ok, this probably isn't anything, but I figured I'd run it by the experts on here anyway...

This weekend I took the Gheenoe out for a few hours, caught a few bass and had a fairly nice day. However, my Merc decided to misbehave after starting and running perfectly at the ramp.

First thing in the morning, the motor started on the first pull, ran smooth and everything seemed normal. After fishing for a while, I attempted to restart the motor and it sputtered and coughed, refused to throttle up and stalled. Eventually I got it going by working the choke and the throttle, and it ran fine to the next spot. However, when it was time to move again, the outboard acted up again and continued to do so every time I tried to start it.

When I got home, I put some Seafoam in the tank and ran the motor for awhile, just to clean things up. It actually seemed like the problem cleared up, but the next morning I found a little puddle of oil on the garage floor and saw it was coming from between the prop/lower unit. This oil is clearly not lower unit gear oil, and it feels and smells as if it has been burned.

Here's a picture. Note - I turned the prop to get a better shot. The "leak" was on the bottom.


Opinions? Problem, yes or no?

 

Thanks Brett, I suspected as much but given the starting issues earlier, I didn't want to rule out that it might be indicative of a bigger issue.