Our 90 minutes at the internet cafe was a study in frustration. The only good thing that came out of it was advice from one of the customers to go to the Italian restaurant and bar across the road from the Marina because the wireless there was free and fairly good. She recommended the food too.
I decided to take advantage of the very calm wind conditions to fuel up the boat. After putting in 40 ml of diesel additive (to inhibit fungal growth and somehow deal with water) I emptied the two 10 liter containers of diesel into the main tanks using for the first time the Baja Filter. That filter worked very well and allowed the fuel to pass through the three filters surprisingly fast. I then put the empty containers in the Zodiac along with the hand trolley and headed for shore and the short walk to the fuel station. The attendant filled the containers past the "full" mark to the very top and the pump claimed that 12 liters had gone into each container, costing 205 pesos. I returned to the boat and emptied those two containers into the main tank. I then returned to the gas station with the two containers and the smaller 4 liter container of outboard motor fuel which was empty except for 80 ml of outboard motor oil. This time it cost 240 pesos. Another 10 liters of this lot of diesel and Pachuca's diesel tanks were full to the brim, leaving about 24 liters in reserve. The Baja filter wound up with a bit of scum and a few bits & pieces on the top filter which I cleaned off The second, finer filter was clean. I didn't bother to check the third, ultra fine filter. Pachuca had average just under 2.3 liters of fuel per hour. However, many of those hours had been hard ones of 1400 rpm instead of the usual 1000 rpm. This suggests 60 hours of motoring for a range of about 300 miles.
By then it was mid afternoon and we went ashore for a visit to the Italian restaurant and bar. Their internet turned out to be very reliable, though not particularly fast. Over two beers I managed to upload a long video to the blog then I took the laptop into the restaurant where I uploaded a second video while we enjoyed sirloin steak dinners. At the end of this two-hour effort I confirmed that the second video had made it to the blog but it looked like the first one had not made it, even though everything seemed to have progressed normally. I agreed with Arnold's suggestion that my future videos will be much shorter to make the upload process easier.
After Skype calls to Australia and a friend in Port Townsend Arnold and I headed back to the boat at last light, satisfied that the refueling task had been taken off the list. A bit of re provisioning and a trip to Lopez marine for a spare spark plug and outboard motor oil, and Pachuca would be ready for sea again.
(Incidentally, we are eating pretty good sliced whole wheat bread with the interesting brand name "Bimbo". But instead of a dumb blonde there is a cute white teddy bear wearing a chef's hat.)
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1 comment:
Interesting to see...a cute white teddy bear wearing a chef's hat...did he cook for you????
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