The dreaded BUG
Serafina
Rob & Sarah Bell
Mon 19 Oct 2009 07:53
Saturday morning we had a visit from Moshe and Claudia who had come to fit
the new hatch covers they have made for us. Wonderful job done and they look
very smart. (Moshe might be reading this!)
The weather has been a bit threatening and dark clouds rolled around for a
while, but it stayed hot and dry pretty much all day.
In the evening we went along to happy hour and met up with everyone, but
then, as planned joined up with David and Jill who are still anchored out in
the bay, for dinner in the restaurant where they do some fantastic dishes at
very sensible prices.
Sunday was a long hard and rather miserable day as we had discovered the
previous afternoon that we almost certainly had go the dreaded fuel bug in
our tanks. This is a 'bug' which is fairly common around the world but more
so in places where the fuel supply and storage is a bit dubious. It grows in
the tank particularly if there is any water present and that is where it
gets its oxygen from. We have been meticulous with our two main tanks, but
have rather overlooked the third fuel tank which is a water tank that we
have converted to hold fuel. Fortunately we spotted the tell tale signs of
growth in the Racor pre filter's glass bowl and so we caught the bug early.
Most people only discover that they have it when the engine stops because
the fuel lines and filters are choked by the debris, which can be very
exciting depending on where you are when the motor stops running!
We took advice from several knowledgeable sources and set about dosing all
the tanks with a chemical that kills the bug and using a pump to suck the
sludge and debris out of the tanks. This involves gaining access to the
tanks and then removing their inspection hatches to see what they were like
inside and pumping any muck and fuel out through a special pick up point in
each tank. As it happens only the converted water tank was showing any
contamination, but to be safe we did all the tanks thoroughly. Just to help
our day along though, one of the tanks was full to the brim and so when we
started to remove the inspection plate, fuel ran into the boat's saloon
bilge. So now we had to flush and wash this area otherwise we would smell of
diesel forever, so a good hour vanished there! Then to deal with this tank
we had to hand pump 20 litres out into cans so we could then open the hatch
safely, finally dosing the tank and then filtering this fuel back into the
tank.
David from Souris Rose appeared at one stage hopeful that I would take a
look at a problem he was having with his computer, but wisely spotted that
today might not be the right day to pursue this too far! However Moshe also
visited to discuss the website I am building for him and he was not easily
put off, so we had a little break mid morning. Sarah has asked him to sit
for a portrait when we get back in the spring which he is very excited
about. He was telling us that he had been asked to model once before, but
that the person who asked was actually making monster puppets! Sarah tells
me that he has a wonderful face to draw.
At 6.30pm we were all set to head for happy hour and a well earned glass of
something refreshing when two lads turned up with the stainless work that
they had done for us (and were supposed to fit on Saturday). They spent half
an hour measuring and preparing to make adjustments to their work but
realising that it was dark outside on the quay where all their equipment was
lying, they grabbed it all and set off announcing that they would be 'back
at 2'. I tried to explain that we were lifting out the next day and so would
probably not be here at 2 but after several minutes of a difficult
conversation it transpired that he meant they were driving back to their
workshop to do the welding and polishing and would come back in 2 hours
(9.00pm). They took our phone number and we rushed off to the bar. Sure
enough they were back later and the job was wrapped up by 9.30pm and on a
Sunday too!