Everything on the boat smells like gasoline. The new outboard fuel tank built to the latest EPA standards weeps fuel when it builds pressure. Actually the problem is in the little fitting where the fuel hose connects. I however thought it was integral to the tank and started syphoning to empty it so I could exchange it at West Marine. Of course, the hose slipped out and fuel went everywhere. The worst thing is it went over the cooler where we keep our cold drinks on ice.

I cleaned off the top of the cooler, but didn’t imagine that the stuff went inside. This morning, I drained water from the melted ice and noticed a distinct greenish hue and an unpleasant odor. The fuel is for a two cycle engine so has oil in it. Yuck. We have scrubbed everything and sprayed with bleach.

We returned to the boat Saturday and intended to use one day in preparation and depart today. Again, I over estimated how quickly I could accomplish my to-do list and that ran over to today. Of course, the fuel spill added to the time line and then we found the fuel in the cooler this morning, so that would have made a departure very stressful. Tomorrow’s forecast is for windy/choppy conditions, so now we are targeting Wednesday.

Wi-Fi at the marina is sporadic, so while we can check email, doing any heavier duty data work is futile. We grab a signal whenever we can, but probably won’t post more pictures until we have a better connection.