Behan and Jamie

Jamie started by turning off the valve between the diesel tank and primary fuel filter and lining up jerry cans to decant. This diesel transfer kit from Orion Motor Tech would serve both Totem and Serendipity’s uses to pump tainted fuel out the tank. Other everyday cruising uses: our 12v transfer pump (see photo near the top of the post of Jamie using it) is currently loaned to another boat in the anchorage that needed to polish their fuel to try and remove a diesel bug (a microbial contamination gunking up their fuel, common enough a problem). It’s bailed us out from similar situations when we had a persistent diesel bug in Southeast Asia, and most recently helped polish dirty fuel we boarded at an outer island in the Bahamas.

OK, this has been on Jamie’s wish list for years: in fact, I cited it in a blog post SEVEN years ago as lingering on Jamie’s wish list. The folks at MPowerd have kept us all happy with those awesome inflatable LUCI lights for years, with incremental design improvements making them progressively more fun and useful. The night before, we stood on the side deck watching a school of fish morph into different glowing shapes under Totem, testing their reaction to the clap of a bucket upside down on the surface, gasping when what appeared to be a larger predatory glow streaked through to cleave the mass in two. Spending this much time at work hasn’t been the norm on Totem, but supporting people towards cruising dreams hardly feels like work: we love what we do!

The product features are substantial: a strong environmental case (nothing toxic ends up in the water, as with conventional antifouling paints), and solid financial value (the epoxy bottom should last for many years, a significant savings). We did the work in early December at Cabrales Boatyard in Puerto Peñasco, where Totem rested for months to dry out wet fiberglass. With two people rolling full time, we completed one coat on the hull at just the right time to start a second coat. Initial coats go in more thinly; later coats were thicker, as the tacky layers beneath softened the application layer and grabbed more paint.

The last leg of Totem’s Pacific crossing stared back at us in the form of the setting sun. The dilemma is that the sources for weather forecasting don’t agree, ranging from moderate to rough conditions. Due to several variables that didn’t exist during Bligh’s time, contemporary use of weather waffle has more to do with pre-departure indecision. Who hasn’t been out on the boat listening to a NOAA forecast broadcasting sun with light and variable winds, when in reality it’s so windy