Scrubbers By Any Other Name

Fuel Polishing




Until a short time ago, I didn't know what "fuel polishing" was all about.  When Gary, the mechanic, said we'd better get the fuel polished , I thought to myself,  "Bob, now I know this boat thing has been expensive but this is ridiculous. The next thing you know, he's going to try to sell me a bridge".  Well, it turns out, it is no joke.  Diesel fuel, especially diesel fuel that has sat for a long time in Florida, tends to turn into a science project.

So, the first fuel polisher guy shows up and starts measuring the water in my fuel tanks. (That's what I said, measuring the water in my fuel tanks).  "Eight inches in that one, Bob, I don't think I'm going to be able to help you.  But I'll call in the big boys for ya'. They have a big truck and they'll do you up right."

Remember the part about me and the crew going to Florida, jumping on the boat and sailing it home?  Well, it turns out there is just a tad bit more to this "nightmare" than we thought.

He wasn't kidding... they have a big truck!  Let the polishing begin. However in this case, it turns out that the fuel was so messed up that they pumped it and cleaned the tanks and suggested that we put in clean fresh fuel.  The good news is they run off road (red) fuel in boats in Florida, which computes out to no road tax.  I like that...

Mitchell here, I just thought I'd tell you that I don't think "Bum-bin-bubba", my name for my grandpa, is ever going to sail this boat. 

Some of the cool things are:

Working on the boat with Wayne and fixing everything.  My favorite thing to fix was the depth finder.   It was fun to crawl in the engine room.  And Wayne liked that a lot because I'm the only one small enough to get into some of the tight places.  And then there is fishing. And we spotted our first Manatee!

Well, the pull out for hull repair (remember those missing bolts?) that was scheduled for yesterday didn't happen because when we started the boat to warm it up prior to the move/haul out, it ran like a top for about five minutes and then quit.  That's when we discovered that our fuel was in worse shape than we thought.  Some of the fuel has now been cleaned and the pull out is supposed to happen at eleven o'clock today (Wednesday).  Once the boat is back in the water, the fuel scrubbing will continue at 1 o'clock and we will be closer.  I think we're starting to shy away from saying things like, "We could be ready to go tomorrow", for fear it would be the kiss of death, so to speak.  I know that Mitchell and Jeff are past ready to go. So no time is soon enough to stop all this repair work and get into the business of sight seeing.