Hello out there... Monday DavidEllis left Donato's boatyard in Lake Union on a brilliant winter day - cold but very bright. We transited down to the Chittenden Locks, under the Fremont Bride and Ballard bridge - which both raised for us - stopping just before the locks to take on 400 gallons diesel; then into the small USACE lock, dropping down to sea level and out into Puget Sound, pulling into the transient dock at the Shilshole Marina. Noah C. and Kurt (MV Alpenglow) joined Rusty and me for the trip down to the fuel dock (while Dorothy ran errands e.g. getting a propane tank filled and exchanging boat parts). Peter (SV Marcy) joined us at the fuel dock (to help with the locks) where Dot helped with the fueling, brought KFC for everyone, and paid the fuel bill.

There's lots involved in fueling DE. There are six fuel tanks built into the boat. Before fueling we transfer fuel into the operations tank - whenever we move fuel from one tank to another, it runs through a large Gulf Coast filter. Fueling requires mounting catchment flasks over the two fuel vents on the aft outside wall of the pilothouse; placing absorbent pads below the vents, and in the scuppers where fuel might go if it did spill from the vents. Fuel spills into the water are a major no-no, and can lead to big fines. Tanks to be filled require changing valves on an intake manifold; monitoring tank gauges; standing watch at the vents and filling at the fill pipe under the big red hatch on the trunk cabin forward of the pilot house -- a bit more involved than filling your auto. We keep the cockpit doors (into the pilot house) closed during fueling because diesel fumes are heavier than air and will flow out of the vents, down into the cockpit and through the door into the pilothouse, and down the ladder into the salon where it will take days to get rid of the diesel smell. As you might imagine we've learned all this the hard way. I've seen some pretty exciting boat fuel episodes. My favorite is the Diesel Duck owner who "disappeared" into a geyser of diesel fuel burping back out of the fuel fill! Reminded me of the old joke about the monkey, the cork and the diarrheic elephant.

Once at Shilshole, Kurt dug into some glitches in the electronics. He's pretty savvy in this area, and has helped me out repeatedly over the past year. Most of the time the issue is a setting in the instruments (which for unknown reasons) reverts back to a default.

Tuesday, with help from Dorothy and Peter, I got the reverse-cycle heat function of the air conditioning units going again; we haven't run these units since end of last summer ('09) - brought the boat temp up to 70+ degrees. Between (1) the cabin coolant loop heating off the engine underway; (2) the Dickensen diesel heater and (3) the reverse-cycle when hooked up to shorepower or with genset running we should have no problem staying warm on the passage to Southeast Alaska.

Dot vacuumed inside the boat and did shopping for the trip while I got about half the deck washed down, after months of dirt collecting on the boat surfaces. I also got some of the engine room bilge cleaned.

We've adjusted our departure from tomorrow afternoon to first thing Thursday morning. The change will allow us to go with the tide up Puget Sound towards Victoria, rather than fighting it all the way. Our buddy Wade has been stuck in Denver since 1 Jan, and will not be able to join us for the passage (maybe he'll catch up in Ketchikan). Dorothy's classmate from SMA, Ben (who I mentioned in the last blog) will crew with us on the run north.

We've got a few more jobs tomorrow to get everything ship-shape for our Thursday morning departure; but right now the boat feels ready to go. Rusty is definitely ready to go....