Monday, April 3, 2017

Other Interesting Projects!!! ARGHHH!!

Renne' and I are finally ready to head out in the morning from NAS Boca Chica, at Mile Marker 8 outside of Key West.  SV JonNe' is as ready as I know how to make her.  We have worked, and shopped, and worked, and shopped, and worked some more.  Oh, yeah, we shopped some more too!!!

Friday, we drove JonNe' over to Stock Island Marina to fill our fuel tanks and pump out our black water in preparation for a departure on Saturday.  So, without telling you immediately what happened, here is a picture of our starboard 75 Gallon Fresh Water Tank:


For most of you nautical types, you might recognize the fact the water is NOT clear!!  After pumping 35 gallons of fuel aboard, I realized, for the first time in 11 years of ownership of this vessel, I was pumping fuel into our fresh water tanks!!!

Now you may ask me why I am embarrassing myself by telling you what an incredibly STUPID mistake I made.  Fact is, I want everyone to realize, if you are getting ready to cruise, mistakes are inevitable.  The best you can do is learn from them, and even cruisers, like us, with a bit of experience make errors.  I just hate to make them.

So, obviously, I quit taking fuel onboard in THAT tank, and completed the job of fueling the boat.  We immediately called our local fuel guy, Cory with Atlantic Marine, and begged him to come on Saturday to pump out all of this fuel.  As he said, all he was going to do was fishing and jet skiing.  So we moved the boat to the main dock at the office here at Boca Chica, early Saturday morning, and waited for Cory to arrive!!  An hour later, all of the fuel was out of the tank and I was left with cleaning the mess up.

So the lost fuel cost us $100, and the fuel disposal was another $260.

Cory's recommendation was Simple Green to dissolve the fuel, and fill the tank to wash the entire interior, drain, rinse, more Simple Green, more water, drain, some Amway LOC, fill, drain.  In all, it required seven fills of 75 gallons, and manually pumping out all of the water.  A total of about 600 gallons of water was used, and 450 strokes of the pump PER fill up.  There is no drain at the bottom of the tank that can be used.  All of this to get the taint of diesel out of the tanks.  The final fill, was different.  We added two liters of Carlo Rossi Burgundy wine to the mixture, took the boat out for a spin into waves to ensure the mixture completely washed through the tank, then let it sit overnight.  Another 450 strokes, and some final mopping up of the last bit of water in the bottom of the tank, and I filled it for the last time.

So all of our other projects really pale in comparison, however, here is a current list of what we have accomplished:

1.   Single Side Band antenna connectors cleaned and rerouted.  Now it works when propagation is good.
2.   100 feet of new 5/16" chain to replace the chain I robbed from the port anchor for the trawler when we brought her to Houston from Port Canaveral.
3.   Removed all of the cushions in the V-Berth we had put there for our friends, Barb and Doug when we sailed with them to Cuba last year.
4.   Replaced said cushions with gear we removed for Barb and Doug's arrival, and got ready for whatever occurs in The Bahamas.  

5.   Climbed the mast to replace the spare main sail halyard at the top of the mast that had fallen down while we were in Cuba.  Someone forgot to secure one end when his attention got diverted - must have been a pretty girl - ah, I don't think so.
6.   Reworked VHF antenna at top of the mast for a better connection - ah, that didn't do any real good.
7.   Cleaned Radar ground at the first spreader, and now it works better - I hope.
8.   Installed self watering hoses for batteries (last post)
9.   Created and mounted new containers for propane (last post)
10. Purchased and mounted new grill
11. Replaced two hinges on one of the locker doors so the third one won't break.
12. Regreased the winch on the main mast.
13. Repotted the portlight over our bed in the aft stateroom.  It had begun to leak, so I had to resolve that issue.

Oh, yes, a year ago, at the Miami Boat Show, we ran across a new device that is way COOL!  It is the Clean Way Fuel Fill (http://www.cleanwayfuelfill.com).
We used it for the first time on Friday when we were filling the fuel tanks.  It really prevents any splash back while fueling, and virtually eliminates any fuel spills.  It works on both large and small fuel nozzles, and all of the known fuel ports on boats.  You choose the adaptor for your boat.  Check it out!!

So we leave about 0800 tomorrow, 04 Apr, 2017, for Bimini, The Bahamas.  We will continue this then!

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