Thanks to all who sent encouragement and suggestions after yesterday’s mishaps. Robbie from Ask Filtration came through on his promise to arrive in the morning. We opened our fuel tank access down below and he brought his hose through the porthole. The water goes to the bottom of the tank with the diesel on top. The only thing we could see was a little cloudiness at the bottom of the tank. He vacuumed out all the contents of the tank and then dried it with towels.
Then, he assessed the fill hose. Like most hoses on our boat , it goes down before coming up into the tank. So there was water in “the belly” also. We removed the hose from the tank and drained that with the vacuum as well.
He filled the tank with 5 gallons of diesel and we started the motor. Smooth! We parted with Robbie and his assistant Griffin. The staff helped us out of our slip. We headed out to the fuel dock at the nearby marina to fill our tank.
Just when we thought we were in the clear, the cap to the fuel fill slid through the scupper and into the water. We had a spare but David was reluctant to leave our cap . We were in 12 feet of water and the water was clear. He dove down with mask and fins and got our cap back. Amidst my protesting and panic, I missed the picture. My only husband, disappearing between the boat and the fuel dock, endless seconds and finally a hand emerging, holding a silver cap. For David, it was an act of bold defiance that ended in a victory and a chance to assume a limited sense of control again.
We motored down the waterway and found an anchorage north of the Flagler Memorial Bridge. We watched the depth as it was only 8 feet at low tide. We cleared through low tide and current changes. Tomorrow we move South.
