That title is apt literally and figuratively. We left the dock today for a mooring ball. First we started out for a sea trial of our own to see if re-plumbing the fuel tanks solved the problem of the air leak. We didn’t even get out in the main channel before I saw that there were still air bubbles in the fuel.

So we came back and took the mooring ball that had been assigned to us. Bud went off to the store and I put up the awning I’d made over the summer and tried to enjoy the cockpit. The photo is Earendil in her new spot with the awning deployed. It’s made of white flag material, so is lightweight, strong and UV resistant. It seems to work pretty well; I hope it holds up.

When Bud got back he brought 20 feet of fuel line he’d bought. We started to hook that up to our fuel tank to bypass the manifold and see if that eliminated the bubbles. Bud was trying to drain the filter so he could attach a larger fitting for the hose, which is 3/8 inch and not quarter inch. Meanwhile, I took the hose off the supply side of the tank to hook the new bypass hose on. When I did, fuel started to come out of the tank! I put the old hose back and went and checked the fuel levels and both tanks were reading overfull again. How did that happen? We had just had that tank open yesterday to replace the gasket on the inspection port and the tank was close to full, but not overflowing. Now fuel was coming out the fitting that is about an inch above the top of the tank. It seems our engine is now making fuel instead of using it. We are baffled. I was so frustrated I was close to tears.

We pushed on. We got the new hose attached, Bud filled the Racor back up and put the lid on, we used the transfer pump to get the air out of the new line, Bud topped off the Racor again and then pumped another gallon out of the tank. The fuel level reading dropped again. Once everything was buttoned up we turned the engine on and watched for bubbles. At about 3000 RPM with no load (in neutral) I saw some very tiny bubbles. They may have been residual air from the new line, or maybe it was our old problem still with us. We left everything hooked up (which means we have one section of floor lifted out and hose snaking from the bottom of the companionway to the engine). Tomorrow we’ll take the boat back out and see what it does under load. If the tiny bubbles were residual they should clear up. If it is our old problem they should get worse.

So you see, we really didn’t get very far.