Published 04/11/2025
Up at about 7:15, it felt good to sleep in a bit. Breakfast, then bible reading.
As we got started working on cleaning out the aft Lazerette (huge storage area) Miguel came by and introduced Abel who was our helper for getting diesel. He and Reneé went to the diesel station and made 3 trips bringing a total of 114 gallons of diesel getting us almost full. Before he could easily fill our tank, we had to move the boat from the starboard tie to the port tie, this was pretty easy, we fill over half of this pair of slips, so it was a matter of taking off shore power, then tossing lines across and untying the lines on the starboard dock and tying the lines on the port dock.
After finishing the fuel, it was lunch time. Then finish the aft lazarette.
When all of that was done we went after the cabinets under and behind the settee’s in the salon. All that is left now is the storage areas under the sole (floor).
No pictures today.
Neil, just curious as to why you fill up with diesel if you are not going to use until the fall? Never heard good things about fuel in Mexico (from years ago). Would you have it filtered when you come back in the fall?
For this most recent fill, we are in Puerto Peñasco at the north end of the Sea of Cortez, we will leave tomorrow 4/14/25 to head south. We intend to get to Santa Rosalía by Friday. We will stay there until about Tuesday 4/22. We will have a couple of weeks to sail around the various islands and anchorages with a plan to return to Santa Roslia by about May 1. Then departing on about May 4 for San Carlos on the Mainland. While it only takes a day to cross, there could be weather impacts to our schedule. We have a reservation for May 8 in the Marina at San Carlos, and a houl out reservation for May 15. Some work needs to be done, and the boat will be put on the hard for the season there.
Now to your real question about the fuel. Yes, there were concerns about fuel quality in Mexico, we even have a “Baja filter” for diesel. This is a water separator that keeps the water out of the fuel tank. We don’t use it. As a clue, a couple of years ago, we had issues with our generator, and thought that it was bad fuel. We offloaded all fuel down to an empty tank about 130 gallons of perfectly good (but dyed purple) fuel. Once the fuel was out and disposed off because none of the locals recognized that the fuel was dark was because it was dyed purple to show that no road tax had been pain in Mexico. At no time have I found water (ever) in our various filters. When the tank was empty, I removed the gauge for the tank and used a scope to examine the inside of the tank. There was no water, nothing appeared to be “growing” on the tank walls and in general the tank was clean. Consider this: The boat was built in 2005, and saw boat show action on the west coast prior to being sold the second time in 2007, and being taken into Mexico. Since then the boat has been used extensively on the west coast of Mexico from about 2007 to 2025. Current engine hours are 3,544.7 and generator hours are 1,365.6. We burn about 1.2 gallons per hour. So, somewhere in excess of 5,000 gallons of fuel has been put into the tank. The fuel filters do not appear to be very dirty, and as I said, I have seen no evidence of water in the filters or in the tank. We have not had to change a filter due to it plugging since we got the boat in 2019, we do change the filters periodically, when we do maintenance on the boat, but that is like every year or maybe even every other year.
I have heard a couple of theories about what to do with fuel tanks, leave them full so that no water goes in as the fuel expands and contracts with temperature, leave them low, so that you can refill from a low level with good fuel are two examples of those theories. I am more inclined to leave the tank full to minimize the water from the fuel expanding and contracting. Also, I am not too worried about it based on my experience so far.