Khutze Inlet, 27-AUG-2018 – While Jennifer sleeps, I research and fret over what to do about he junk that has accumulated in the bowl of our Racor fuel filter.
Kutze Inlet is a beautiful, big place, surrounded by mountains, with snow-cover peaks glimpsed around closer mounts. The water is flat and two water falls provide a constant aural accompaniment to the sights.
Yesterday rained in the morning; we wore foulies but cleared up as the day progressed. We have placed ourselves back into the conundrum or leaving early in the morning to get a move, but missing the wind that starts later in the day. Although the last few days the wind seems to only last a couple of hours.
We heading south through one of the inside water highways, Princess Royal Channel, so unlike previous days, there has been a parade of boats heading south. 90% are commercial fishing boats heading home after the close of the season. We spoke with the 83-year old owner of one Canadian boat who said there might, perhaps, be one more Canadian opening, but he wasn’t bothering to hang around to find out.
With the three years experience we have now, we understand the different types of fishing bots we see and things make more sense. Many, if not a majority, of the American boats we see heading south are ‘‘Buyer’’ boats. These boats are large, 75-150 feet. They buy the fish as they are caught by the fishing boats. They also supply ice, food, other supply and often discounted fuel.
Many of the american buyer boats’ home port is on Seattle’s Lake Union. We recognize them there. The smaller fishing boats often winter over in Alaska at Craig, Petersburg, Wrangle, Sitka and other places. The owners winter in the lower forty-eight.
We see pleasure boats heading south as well. We haven’t overtaken anyone.
We think we’ve lost about half a knot because of a dirty bottom. I started doing some scrubbing with a brush on the end of a boat hook, but I really need to go into the water. I have a wet suit, but didn’t think about the buoyancy a cold water suit would give: I can’t get under the water.
Yesterday, we restocked the cached supplies from stored stock in the basement.
Also in the basement are the electronics (battery charger, AIS, switcher, etc), drinking water equipment (water heater, water pump, water maker, etc), and fuel handling (fuel filters, fuel pump, turn off valve etc). It is only as I write this, that I am reminded of how complex a boat can be.
I’ve written in past years about fuel filters and the Racor filter I installed. I may have also written about bad fuel and the gunk we find in the bottom of the three five-gallon cans we store additional fuel in.
When we use those cans, I am careful not to pour the gunk into the fuel tank.
I’ve always wondered if that gunk, which has to be in the main tank, merely settles out over time. In the basement, I got my answer. The ‘‘turbo’’ portion of the Racor has separated out the gunk and it is collected in the bowl.
My question is whether to let that gunk sit until we get to a dock in Shearwater in five days time, or take care of it now in the middle of nowhere.
We’ve decided to take a day off from the continuous movement south. The trip had begun to become an unpleasant race to get south for not good reason. Today, we’ll launch the dinghy and go exploring. I’ll also drain the Racor, get every thing bled and be thankful I upgraded the filter. The previous 1970s British filter was always a nightmare to deal with.
If you have thoughts about this, you can comment. If you have advice, or think I should wait, email me at carobabbo-AT-carobabbo-DOT-com, since I will start this in a couple of hours.
The picture of the Racor is below.
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