Dirty Fuel - Again

We can’t seem to shake our problem with dirty fuel. We defueled and discarded ~300 gallons of diesel in Rota, Spain, back in November, and the tanks were flushed with gallons of clean fuel several times to remove any residual gunk from the bottom of the tanks. The fuel system looked and performed well, until it didn’t, while we were on passage across the Atlantic when the genset stalled several times and its Racor filter unit looked turbid. We tried to have the tanks cleaned again in Virgin Gorda and Puerto Rico, but things didn’t work out.

Meanwhile the genset, which is fueled from the port tank only, began to stall again. And its Racor unit looked gunked up again.

So, today we moved AFS 0.2nm to the service dock at Astillero Santa Marta to repeat the defueling and tank cleaning process, again with ~300 gallons of fuel. However, when the tech came aboard today and closely examined both tanks, he concluded only the port tank needed cleaning. Instead of defueling 300 gallons we only had to 150!

The whole process went quite smooth, including moving the boat to/from the service dock, emptying the port tank, flushing it several times with clean fuel and then adding 75 gallons of fresh fuel.

Our fingers are crossed that this will take care of the problem, along with continued meticulous preventive maintenance of the fuel system and constant vigilance for signs and symptoms of a recurrence. 🤞🤞Read more