Ah, nothing like the fresh smell of old diesel in the morning. I was able to get all 25 annoyingly placed bolts off of the two by two man hole for the fuel tank. After hand cranking about 50 gallons out that had been sitting in there for five years or so, I was ready to go in.

You can imagine what was waiting for me inside .
Definitely a bio breeding ground. Diesel sludge stalagmite type things. I first scraped off most of the small rust build up that the condensation had caused. Then I started the long bucket brigade. Four hours later and a decent high even though I was wearing a mask, I felt it was looking pretty good. At least clean enough for the two in-line Racors to handle.
Since I was already dressed for the occasion, I moved on to the fresh water tank. More scraping, sanding, vacuuming and then finally painting. We used a product called Brew Coat. It was one of few paints we could find that were specifically for potable water. Actually, as the name implies, it is used by breweries for their tanks, but we figured if it was good enough for beer, it must be ok for water.

About half way into the work day, I figured it would be best to take a break as I heard my Dad (who has asthma) hacking away on deck. Poor bugger, I had him breathing in fumes most of the morning . It is always nice to have good crew members who don’t complain, but I have to make sure I don’t go kill them off right away. So, I figured we’d get some air and start prepping the bottom. Nothing like some dust in the wind to cure a breathing problem.
As I was going around the hull, I noticed some weeping and a little rust bubble. I thought maybe some water got under the paint so I used my pocket knife and started to poke. Darn…not just paint I removed and that small weeping became a little hole.
You can imagine my annoyance.
As I decided to end the day there I looked over at my neighborly peanut gallery: My dad and two jolly Coasties. I could tell they were about to give me “words of wisdom” so I just raised my hand and said “save it boys”.
I guess I better start looking around for a sand blaster. Cath (who is off working to make some money) isn’t going to like this!
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