Tinkering with tanks

The sun has finally broken through the clouds and for the first time in days I was accompanied by my shadow as I took the 12 km round trip hike into town to pick up various items including a new starter motor. It seems that the small electrical fault I had been wistfully dreaming would be fixed in a morning was actually a broken starter …without which the motor simply will not run. Oh well. A few more dollars spent, and a bit more of my blood dripping into the bilge, and we are once again ready to roll!

The rest of the day was taken up with cutting a new inspection hatch in the fuel tank and generally cleaning the tank out so that it is sparkly clean at the outset of our big journey. A little harder than it might seem but rest assured, the cascade of sparks falling into the diesel dregs at the bottom failed to ignite any fires whilst I attacked the recalcitrant tank with an angle grinder! The tank is now thoroughly chastised after giving me a day of grief, and has bared its heart to me for a thorough scrub. And now, rather than having to lift he entire engine out as was necessitated by the previous system, I can get into the tank easily to solve the various problems that will inevitably not appear now that I have gone to this trouble.

There are still plenty of hours of sunlight ahead tonight … well 24 hours of them. I fear however that the bulk of the evening will be spent cleaning up the mess I have made. I think Leonie might have been right about that one…. Right now I am perched on a bench strewn with tools and can barely see the ground for oil soaked rags, spanners, electrical equipment and buckets holding dubious oily contents. Not to mention my grimy fingers working over the keys in front of me!

Well the good news is we are one step closer to hitting the water!

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