Into the tanks we go!
15 December 2013 | Sutera Marina
cloudy with some rain
We headed into the diesel tanks this morning looking for what ever may lurk there. We tried to shove a tube through the hole in the top but could not tell when it hit the bottom of the tank. In the end, we pulled off the inspection plate on the top. Now we have had problems with the plate before. It used to leak. We were told when we took it off the first time to replace the rubber seal with cork. Oh, what a mess that made and the fuel just went through the seal. We finally found a product called "The Right Stuff"(available at many car parts places). We cut the top off the tube and ran beads around the top of the tanks and screwed down the plate. Worked like a charm. Never leaked again. Well, today we had to get it off. Let's just say that this stuff makes such a great seal that it doesn't ever want to come undone. We shoved putty knives around the edge trying to work then under or through the stuff. It took a while but we finally pried off the lid after getting about 3/4 of the way around the lid. Now we had the delicate task of getting what was still stuck to the tank as well as the lid off without dropping a single piece of it into the fuel tank. We were oh so careful and actually managed to do it. I slowly reached my hand (ok, my entire arm)down into the diesel with a small hose hooked up to a small vacuum pump. We actually got very little goo out of the tank. A few bits of something came out but very little. It was not as bad as I had thought it would be. I grabbed a tube of "The Right Stuff" that I'd brought back to Pohnpei when I came back back in February. Cut off the top of the tube only to find a solid mass of what ever this stuff is made of. I pulled out a partial tube of butyl rubber I'd used on another project and used it instead. This stuff is nasty and sticks to EVERYTHING it even comes close to. I was again very careful and we got the plate rescrewed to the top of the tank. For our second tank, I just stuck the tube I'd used on the first tank and again sucked out next to nothing. We were just fine thought I'm going insearch of a biocide tomorrow to kill off any bacteria that might be growing in the tanks. I've a lead on a possible source for it in the KK area.
I took off for a shower so we could take the shuttle into town and have lunch at Kohinoor again. Just love their food. We each had the same thing we had the first time except I ordered some basmati rice to go with it. I ate conservatively and even had some left over for another meal.
Once done, we headed to one of the shopping centers to pick up some DVD's and got stuck in another downpour. The bus back to the marina was 35 minutes late getting to us the rain was so bad. Once back at the complex(Pacific Hotel, Sutera Marina, and the Magellan) we were again hit with another deluge of rain. In the end, we just decided to bite the bullet and just walk in the rain back to Zephyr. Hey, we weren't going to melt. Took a bit of time to get back to the marina but we got there safe and sound and just soaked to the bone.