Fuel Polishing

After returning to Django, I prepared the evening RPs and WW prepared to “polish the fuel”. When our fuel woes had been described to the cruisers, they all said, “Polish your fuel.”

WW had found a hand pump that would get the fuel from one tank to the other. He set up the funnel and lined it with paper towel. Then he started to pump about eight gallons of fuel from the port tank into the starboard tank. He was unable to do it alone. We mopped up the spilled diesel, I pumped, he aimed the outflow. That worked.

It seemed endless. And there was no guck. Very disappointing. Until we got to the very bottom. Ewwwww.

He pronounced it to be rust picked up, no doubt at all, in Rum Cay. I was having none of it. I love Rum Cay and won’t have it talked of that way. It was dissolved mouse. In fact, it was neither. It was squishy and made up of bacteria and/or algae.

On Sunday morning, it was time to filter all the fuel in the starboard tank (about 18 gallons) into the port tank. This time, things went more quickly since WW had been able to fit a larger hose onto the pump. But it wasn’t long enough, so about half way through the task, we had to switch to a smaller bore hose. We did the last 10 gallons this way and it was a drag. The hose was so long that it required a lot of effort to pump. The handle was poorly designed for heavy work. We switched hands and switched jobs frequently. Then the goo started to arrive (remember, this was the tank that had had the initial and more serious fuel-flow problem). WW was on the pump at the time and it completely renewed his energy. What we had seen the evening before was as nothing to this revolting sludge which poured out in quantity. We had to change our paper towel filter several times.

When all had been filtered and the mountain of diesel-soiled paper towels (used for filters, mopping up spills, and hand wiping) had been bagged for disposal, WW took the bags in Boffo to the Boquerón garbage cans and bought a couple of jerry cans more of fuel. On his return, he filtered that into the tanks. Then he changed all the fuel filters (each engine has two). Then engines have been behaving beautifully ever since.

With our fuel polished to a blinding gleam, we were ready to continue our voyages.