The winds really picked up a bit all day long as the high pressure system really kicked into gear. The winds blew 20 to 32 knots with hardly any letup. I was going to empty the four jerry jugs I filled the other day into our tanks and then return to Seisia to get 4 more. However, the seas in the anchorage were filled with white caps and it would have been a very wet and uncomfortable ride. It was pretty amazing to see such large white caps since we are so close to shore. It was just an indication of how strong the winds were.

I did empty the 4 jugs into the port tank. The method I used will be this week’s techno-tip. It is very important when you are not sure of the quality of the fuel you are using to filter it. I have come up with a need trick that filters the fuel and pumps the fuel into the tanks at a reasonable rate.

The rest of the day was just rest and relaxation. We read and played cards and read some more. Not a very exciting day but with such a windy day, it was more than enough!

Right now, the stalled high pressure system looks like it will take until Sunday before it starts to move east toward NZ. Quite frankly, NZ can have it (sorry about that, our NZ friends). We are tired of it and are anxious for it to move on. We hope to start our trip to Darwin Monday afternoon. We still plan on first sailing south about 50 nm to minimize the tidal current waves. It looks like there will be bouts of 20 knot winds when we turn west for a bit of time before they ease some. It is still too far off in time to predict the weather and winds accurately so our plans still may change as we get closer and closer to Monday. Stay tuned for future updates…

Techno-Tip Of The Week: Polishing Your Fuel

After getting a batch of bad fuel in Ecuador a few years ago, I now go to great lengths to protect our engines from getting bad fuel. First, I have the Filter Boss system installed between each engine and our fuel tanks. This system is a dual Racor filter system which filters the fuel to 2 microns. Thus, the fuel filter on the engine never sees anything greater than 2 microns. As a result, that filter lasts for a long time. If the Racor filter starts to clog, a red light goes on at the helm and I just throw a lever on the Filter Boss unit and the fuel is redirected to a backup 2 micron Racor filter. Thus, I do not have to stop the engine to have a clean filter polishing the fuel. If the seas are calm, I can change out the dirty filter while the engine is on and the backup filter is doing its work.

Also, whenever I am in doubt of the quality of fuel that I am taking on, I will first put it into my jerry jugs (capacity of my jugs is 40 gallons) and my 55 gallon deck fuel bladder. This lets me take on up to 95 gallons of fuel. I then transfer that fuel to my fuel tanks and in the process of that transfer I filter it through a large Baha fuel filter.

To make the transfer easy and fast, I use the Jabsco waste oil pump unit that I use to suck out dirty oil from my engines when it is time to change the engine oil. This pump system consists of a large bucket with a dual direction pump mounted on the bucket’s lid.

First I clean out any waste oil that may be inside the pump by running a little diesel through it. To clean it out, I pour the diesel into the bucket and pump about a cup of it out into a waste oil jug that I carry on board. Then I move the pump’s hose over to the Baha filter, which I have secured to the stern rail, next to the fuel intake port. I have another hose that goes from the Baha filter into the fuel intake port. I then turn on the pump and let it do the work of transferring the fuel into the fuel tank. The Baha filter removes impurities and any water that may be present. I do have to refill the pump’s bucket with fuel from the jerry jugs but that is very easy.