Yesterdays fishing trip was a nightmare but unfortunately not a dream :cry: ..........

[Wayne in BC]

bro in law called me at 3 yesterday afternoon wanting to take the new boat out for the evening "bite". It has not been "blooded" yet and i really want to get some fish slime on the fancy paint and upholstery
We left the dock at 4:30 pm, a bit early because he wanted to fuel up the boat (500 hundred bucks worth when empty!) and the nearest gas dock is 20 miles away. We pulled into the fuel dock at 5:15. The attendant said diesel or gas, i pointed to the twin Yamaha outboards and he said hahaha, what was i thinking! 5 minutes later he stopped, smacked his forehead and said.....omygod! i put diesel in!!! Well there was over 50 gallons in the tank when he started fueling and he had put 20 gallons of diesel in when he realised what he had done
After some colorful language from he us, he said.....what do we do now.....and i said, not "we" but "you"! This tank needs to be pumped out completely and refilled. he got on the phone and said someone will be here in 15 minutes to pump the tank.
It was 3 hours before the guy showed up and all he had to do the job was a 12 volt fuel pump!
It could not be pumped back out from the filler nozzle, too small and long, a hose would never reach the bottom of the tank.
It took 20 minutes to fill a 5 gallon (6 US gallon) container, so we did not get out of there until 12:30 am this morning. we had a 20 mile open ocean trip in the dark, then a couple miles of narrow channel and islands to navigate. This was no real problem with the radar and GPS but we could not see the hazards we have here, which include huge floating logs and "deadheads", logs which have become so saturated with water that they float vertically, nearly sunken, with often only a few inches showing above the surface, tough to see even in daylight and these logs often weigh many tons. Any boat that hits them at speed is in real trouble. This welded aluminum boat is really tough and would survive, but who would want to dent a new quarter million dollar boat?
I got home at 3:30 am with sore eyes and a headache from the fuel fumes and staring out into the blackness looking for hazards which i would not have seen anyway but you can't help but try.
Wore out Wayner

 

[Micheal_R]

Bad news about the diesel screw up. I guess you will have to keep an eye on the plugs to see that they do not get gummed up!!! Even after the tank it pumped out, there may some residue.

Just curiosity, what did they do with all that diesel? Put it back into the tank? Take it home? ....?

sunny skies

M

 

[Kelley (Texas)]

while the gas tank crisis was being resolved? I will agree with your assessment...that had to be a nightmare staying clear of the logs in the water. Glad that you made in home safely. Please have a great day! Kelley (Texas)

 

[Kieth-Tx]

n/t

 

[Wayne in BC]

you could also find a ton goodies in the marina
We took the fuel line off between the tank and the large floatbowl/separater and pumped from there. The tank was sucked pretty much dry and 451 liters of a possible 455 gas was added. The remainder, a couple liters of 80% gas and 20% diesel, would mix and not be noticed. The motors were not started until then and no problem.
The diesel/gas mix was put in drums with bottom taps, in a few days it will separate and be drained off.
Wayne

 

[Wayne in BC]

it was kind of an adventure tho

 

[Wayne in BC]

sometimes you just have to save yourself some aggravation and say, hey thats life and we are still here to laugh about it! The really good thing was that there were no women around to put "oil on the fire" so to speak
Thanks Fred
Wayne

 

[Royal]

on a lake in northern Ontario. The lake was calm like glass. Mike the moron I was fishing with was setting front and I was running the motor, a 28 hp Johnson. The boat was a 14 ft Fiberglas with a double hull. Well it did not have a double hull but a separate deck that was sealed and there were two plugs to drain any water that might get between the two. That gave us a flat bottom to walk on.

The boat would run about 30mph I guess and I told mike to set on the bow and watch for those floater. It was logged for years and there were still logs floating around. Like you said they will be water logged and maybe just a half inch above the surface, if that.

The lake is a big one and there was not a cabin within miles. I think there was only one on the whole lake and the lake was sprawling 14 miles long and 5 miles wide. If you had problems and got to shore it was not all that helpful.

I told Mike to watch for logs and opened it up. The boat had a tri hull and would really move on a calm water. I was wide open and all of a sudden the handle of the motor was jerked out of the water and the motor kicked up and was screaming. I instantly shoved the thing back in the water and off we went, wide open and headed for the closest land.

Mike yelled, 'What was that?" and I told the dang fool that it was one of the logs his dumb ass was suppost to be looking for. He asked if I thought it had hurt the boat and I said I had no clue. He asked if I was gonna stop and check and I told the dang fool that you don't check a thing like that in the middle of the fruggin lake in the middle of the wilderness. I figured it was smarter to check it in shallow water.

I knew I had busted a hole in the hull because the boat was getting sluggish as heck and I was now plowing water but I kept it wide open.

I saw a small sandy area, of which there were few in this area and headed for it. When I got to it I ran the boat up as far as I could and cut the motor. The boat was on the bottom and camp was at least 10 miles away. Now what says the dumbass.

I told him to start unloading the boat. We hauled all out gear up to the shore and then I started disconnecting the motor. Now I will tell you something. A dang 28 horse outboard is one heavy sucker but I finally got it off the boat and carried it to shore. Dumbass was just a watching.

I then pulled the plugs and the water came to rushing into the boat. Yup, I had busted a hole but didn't know how big. Mike da dummy asked what we were gonna do and I told him to start to bailing, which he did.

I didn't know how big the hole was but figured there was no way we could drag that dang boat to shore with the innner space full of water so we got to bailing. The water just rushed out but finally I saw the boat was getting lighter. We were bailing faster than the water was coming in!! Good!

We finally got all the water out that we could and started dragging it up on the sandy shore. There we rolled it over and took a look at the damage. We were lucky. Lucky that the damage was not so bad and lucky that when I am up there I always had a fiberglass repair kit with me.

We let it dry in the sun for a while and then I took the fiberglas and resin and went to work. I did a bit of a sloppy job but finally I patched up the hole, it was more of a crushed area than a big hole but under way the water came in fast.

After setting around and giving the thing time to set up, rolled it over and loaded up again. Off we went. I left the plugs out so I could tell if it started leaking but it was a good patch job and we fished the rest of the week that way.

I guess it pays to be prepaired but It is not usually my way

 

[Wayne in BC]

used him for bait! It would have been a real serious problem if you had not been smart enough to keep going.
I forgot to put the plug in my boat at the launch one time, brain dead i guess. The boat was tied to the dock and Carol was in it as i pulled the trailer up the ramp, i looked back and saw her waving frantically as the boat was starting to get low in the water. I backed up real quick and hooked it on the trailer as a bunch of guys on the dock laughed their butts off!
It was tough for the truck to pull it up the ramp with several hundred gallons of water in an 18 ft boat.
That water comes in way faster than it goes out too! I had to bear the snickers and giggles, not mention the looks of wife for 15 minutes while it drained

 

[Royal]

when he was finished he just pulled into his dock and went into the house. Problem was it was his habit to leave the drain plug out while pulling skiiers so it would just suck out the water.

Dallas looked out a bit later and all he could see was about a foot of the bow. The dock was in about 10 or 15 ft of water and since it was a 15 ft boat

 

[Sunny]

n/t

 

[George-CT]

We had a friend who had just purchased a new boat with twin diesels also. They fueled it and off he went up the Connecticut river for the maiden cruise. Quickly the engines started racing and he rain it up on the beach. Ruined both engines. He gotlucky and the marina payed for them, but the boat was tied up for quite awhile. I see if happen from time to time now at the gas pumps with different color pump handles. They shoud be standarized but there are not. Fact about 3 weeks ago here at one station in Connecticut a diesel tank had gas put in it instead and about 200 cars/trucks got ruined before the figured it all out....

I tend to do the sniff test even when the color is right as of late. I've been lucky with the diesels, except for a load of non winterized diesel I bought in South Carolina. I swithed over tanks up north here and it jelled up coming thru the mountains. I got it in a garage and added the stuff to lower the jell point and up the cetane and it was ok. Now I don't pull fuel from there except in summer. I have the 2 tanks on the truck and the big 150 gallon one I put in the back with electric pump. Usually if I fuel in Virgina, I save about 40 cents a gallon when fuel prices are normal at the flying J stations. lately they are all high.

Swampy

 

[david(tx)]

n/t

 

[Wayne in BC]

n/t

 

[General Ray]

n/t

 

[Sunny]

get an A+ for originality!

 

[Wayne in BC]

Southern girls are not easy to fool! I should have spent more time in the south, woulda got better at it, or got killed!