Why had this taken so long? I mean, I've been trying to write this post since about February. And now that it's almost time to head back to Mexico, I finally get around to it. The fact is, I've been reluctant to explain my own stupidity or to relive the events that followed our last post.
You will recall that we had been having a problem with water in our diesel fuel. And I was so certain that it had come from a fuel dock, that we siphoned, filtered, and refilled about 40 gallons of fuel back into the tank three times, only to have it become contaminated again within a day or two. Finally, the light came on. It must be the DREADED LEAKING FUEL TANK. We had read about this as being common with this boat model before we bought IRIE. Yet I had known that our tank couldn't be leaking because the bilge pump never came on. Duh! Long story short, the bilge pump was working just fine, but it wasn't turning on because the float switch that triggers it had gone bad. So, now we have about 40 gallons of contaminated fuel in our tank AND another 30 or so gallons of contaminated bilgewater in our supposed to he dry bilge. Woe is me. Imagine this tank: 15 gallons larger than a 55 gallon drum, 18 inches wide, almost 3 feet top to bottom, and longer than I am tall, located underneath the engine where it will be impossible to replace. Hell, it's hard to even see any of it!
Thankfully we were in La Paz where we had internet and friends, so we searched online to see how other folks had handled this problem. One guy cut a six foot hole in the side of his keel from the outside so he could get the old tank out and a new one in. "I don't think we'll do it that way". Then we called Carlos "Water Works", a local Mexican known for working with this sort of thing. His answer was to basically fill the space and his pockets with our money. He would have us remove the old tank while he had a new one welded up as three tanks so it would fit back into the space. Then, somehow, we would have to hook all three tanks up to each other. "I don't think we'll do that either". Then we called our friend Steve "Falco", a ships carpenter, to take a look. It turns out, to our very good fortune, that Steve is also known as "Mr. Fiberglass", so he readily agreed with my first choice on how to resolve this.
My job was to remove the contaminated fuel and bilgewater. Luckily, many Mexicans are adept at using less than perfect fuel, so they actually wanted it. (There was still plenty of midnight disposal going on too. Sneaking into the marina's disposal site with 5 gallon jugs of slop). Then I would cut out the old tank. The number of pieces didn't matter, and a sawsall was the perfect tool for this bit of ugliness. Then I would clean and scrub, clean and scrub, and clean and scrub again the empty keel cavity left behind - this was a 30 year old bilge you know. We actually used about 60 pounds of kitty litter to suck up what we couldn't siphon out. Then Steve would get in there and grind everything down to bare fiberglass and he would build the new tank with fiberglass and epoxy using the keel itself as part of the new tank.
Now, it all seems fairly simple, but that's the way it is with hindsight, isn't it. In fact, it took us a full month from discovery to this point where we finally had a plan. And for sure there was still plenty of hassle and mess and dust to deal with, but at least now the horrible dreams would stop. Actually, looking back from today, it cost us some money and a couple months of our "vacation", but we all came out better for it. Claudia and I worked through another major hurdle together, and IRIE is stronger than new, and with a really clean tank to boot. What a deal.
Here are some pics to help your imagination:
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| Removing our 60 gal #2 water tank. |
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| Fuel tank with part of lid cut out. Pretty gross! |
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| Clean bilge, ready for grinding. |
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| New lid and baffles going in. |
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| Here you can see Steve's head and one hand. How did he get in there????? Did he get out? |
As you already know from the previous blog post, everything turned out great. We had a fine trip up the Baja and across the Sea to San Carlos where IRIE is patiently waiting for our return. With a bit of luck and good weather we will begin recommissioning on New Years Day. Looking forward to getting warm again, and I promise you won't wait this long for news again. E
