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Ouch yeah that doesn’t sound much fun.

Had to dig deep for that one

Thank you. We are hoping we don’t have too much drama for the next few passages too. 🤞🏼

It’s an interesting take. Stainless will be much heavier which is a factor on a catamaran. Also, when you consider aluminium built boats (such as Delos 2.0) most of these have their tanks built directly in the hull materials. That said, plastic roto-moulded tanks would be ideal if we had access to such things out here.

@ not really as it’s also thinner. The weight difference is not so much but the safety factor a huge one. Polypropylenemay be heavier as it’s thicker. And still it’s often used in Northern Europe as it has less condensation. Anyway aluminium vis a bad choice. I had several conversations with engineers who agreed on this. As for you tank let’s assume it’s 40 kg and the plate used is 4mm then the same thickness is stainless 316 is about 3x the weight hence 120kg. But since you can build in 2 mm it’s only 69kg so you are looking at a difference of 20 kg . If that’s relevant to your boat something is wrong And be sure not to gain any weight

It’s a cool goal to have. Not sure we are quite ready for full electric given our cruising plans but there are some fun solutions out there.

@@RedSeas it is like a million times simpler and a million times robust. once done well, nothing will break, or even if, you will have like 5 components that might go wrong, and it will be easy to change those. All I see on such sailing channels, is that they are fixing engine and engine related parts, continuously... :)

Indeed the simplicity of an electric motor is nice (as you saw in our autopilot repair episode recently). It’s worth noting that most of these channels are probably, like us, working on 20 year old engines that haven’t been best maintained. Any moving parts will need some TLC after that kind of life. The main hang ups for cruisers doing the sorts of routes we are doing, is access to parts (nanni engines are kubotu based so we can get by with automatic parts pretty much anywhere in the world) and power storage as lifePo4 in the quantities required for extended off shore and off grid cruising is not a cheap investment (and one that will need replenishing every few years). Still exciting to see what is evolving in electric propulsion for marine use.

And they aren’t wrong! We always say, if you want to go cruising, you have to love (really love) the process of fixing things. Not the result as whatever you fix will break again soon enough. Some of the places we have been lucky enough to break down in have been amazing

It’s a really cool atoll for sure. The people are soooo friendly and kind.

That’s a cool idea. When we get somewhere with some supplies that might be worth a shot

It almost certainly is corrosion due to the prolonged exposure to water that sits int he bottom of the tank following dirty fuel (these tanks are 20 years old and we have plenty of clues that they have never been looked after). Our hope is that the epoxy paint will help create a barrier from external humidity and bilge waters while our new diy fuel polishing system will remove water from building up within the tanks. Hopefully that works to keep us moving until we can source replacements somewhere more built up. The Tuamotus, gambier and the whole of French Polynesia really isn’t set up for boat maintenance on this scale sadly.

@RedSeas @RedSeas Epoxy is an isolating coating, that's right. But if you don't have proper preparation for aluminium, it won't stick very long to it. Also the plug filler may fall off as the fuel gives additional pressure and chemical influence from inside. Hope for your budget it lasts until you can get a replacement tank. Have you thought about using the old tank as a mould for an self built grp tank? Sand the overhanging edges off, coat it with paint and mould release wax and done. Maybe the best chance you have to get a cheap tank very soon. If there's a little space around the old one to take the laminate thickness. The lid can be done separately and is glued on top. Just have a look at the YT channel The Duracell Project, in his videos from about the end of last year you'll find a great description of how he made his tanks. You may also use the boat hull as the outer wall, make a half round tube in the middle of the bottom to let bilge water flow through and just put a lit on top.

Proper preparation would be dry ice blasting for example. Sanding will improve the bond, but it just spreads the corroded surface particles all over the surface. Alu corrodes within seconds with the air.

Shout it from the roof tops

Cheers brother! Always pleased when you stop by and drop us a comment or two

We actually met him! We were loading some food into our dinghy at that bridge and he pulled up. I was getting ready to explain ourselves and he just offered to help us load up. Guess it was a slow day

@@RedSeas must be the most relaxed job ever to be a police officer on that island.. “oh there’s another crime!” Come here Duncan you old scamp! “Give them back their big screen tv” can’t really say “oh I brought it off a guy at the pub? 😂. Duncan you’re are lying! Got you again you scamp! 😂. “Can you describe him?” Well he had Red hair, that’s enough “where is Duncan” 😂

🤣

Good question. We took a look and it was looking ok but we can only see so much of course. Hopefully we get somewhere with resources before it becomes an issue.

Sure but wouldn’t it be a great one if we could?!? 😂

Interesting. I’ll have to take a look for it when we are back in the built up end of FP

@@RedSeas hi, is it possible to have packages sent to you in FP? From UK. Or USA ? Spare parts etc

It is to some degree. We have to be careful what we ship in as we will be charged import duty of 40% on the total shipped costs of the item. There is a process called yacht in transit that we can use for some items to not pay this duty but the base fee is some thing like $200 for paperwork processing so it is all quite expensive sadly. Good excuse to fly into tahiti for a holiday tho. They don’t mind what people bring on holiday really 😂

@@RedSeas ok, thats outrageously expensive, and a headache to go through. Well, enjoy your travels.

To the rescue 😜

Thankfully we pumped almost all the diesel into bottles onboard. We try not to pump anything overboard until we know what it is. That said, the repair is temporary in our eyes. The last time we did it was 4 years ago so it should last until we get back to a more built up location with access to supplies. (We are a good 1000nm from any marine parts here)

Good tip on the pinesol. Will have to see if we can find some when we are next in a big city.

Also consider getting a jerry can pick-up pipe lid. There available for standard jerry cans. That way if a tank fails, you can easily set a jerry can up as a temporary fuel supply. Sure 25 LTRs won't last long, but it will charge battery's or get you into a port.

Totally agree this is a temporary patch to the problem but given the last time we did it was 4 years ago, it should last long enough for us to get somewhere more built up where tanks and supplies are more readily available. (Probably the other side of the pacific). 😊

That’s pretty much what we did to get to anchor. The Nanni engines are crazy fuel efficient so it held out all the way but I might look into 3d printing a custom jerry cap for the job if it happens again. We have a few different 3d printing filament materials and I have a suspicion at least one is diesel resistant for the job.

Glad you enjoyed it

I mean miles might be an exaggeration. This is still a tiny island don’t forget 😂

@ can you walk from one end of the island to the other end? You guys are so lucky visiting beautiful places like that. My favourite TH-camrs 👍🏼

It’s amazing how often that sort of thing happens. Duncan was probably a 2nd cousin or something and we just don’t know it.

Funny part is, those pizza boxes weren’t ours. We pulled them out to drop our bag in and then couldn’t get the lid closed. Hopefully we got away with it

We do our best to keep waste to a minimum but sometimes we end up with plastic packaging we can’t avoid

Exactly! That’s how we create our own custom cruiser without upsetting any of the manufacturers

@ 😂🤣🥸

The diesel sits ontop of the water but it gets contaminated pretty fast so not really a good idea to put it straight back in the tank

😂 cos we are clearly full of luck

@ luck 🎱 of the Irish 🍀…. Come on you two are luck walking on two legs coming from the lepricorn country, you should have put a pot of gold in your hand luggage, they have loads I understand. 😂🤣

Oh yeah! We just have to call tow boat USA and they send a coast guard vessel our ways 😂 or not! It’s going to be a fun one getting everything up and running sgsin

That was our first thought. Checked through every line to and from the engine. Then went thru checking one way valves on bilge pumps, dripless shaft seals and even the rudder bearings to see what could have caused liquid in the bilge

Well, the cost of doing these repairs

Every boat needs one lol

Exactly!

Dual thanks?

@Dual tanks, auto correct, my eyesight when typing is crap. 😵‍💫

It’s pretty common for cats that went thru the charter life that Indioko had. The last charter company to own her really didn’t have a clue how to care for a boat and her engines didn’t get any attention or regular services as best we could tell. Whole new papered works for Indioko now tho 😊

Exactly!! We had it coming to us.

Oh do you want to start a war onboard!!?!?!?! 😂

​@@RedSeasSorry😅 You said passage pizza and my mind *such as it is* started thinking of words that started with the letter p. Never had pineapple pizza personally.....ugh! there it goes again

@ i mean pepperoni is right there 😂

Wow that’s a tough situation to manage at a festive time of year. Hope you’re coping with it and able to celebrate the joyous moments you shared. Every great story has an ending and it’s not usually the most important part to remember. How did you manage the fuel tank issue? Not convinced we will be problem free moving forward but already looking into ideas

Cheers, you’re too kind! We’re just loving living this rollercoaster with two wheels still on the track while the other two are flying high in the air as we whip around the corners. 😜

😜 well we usually manage half a pizza and then freeze the rest for an on passage snack. That said, if the challenge is laid down, at least one of us is willing to pick it up 😂

OK so that went well!

Sit tight. We can get thru this together

On a scale of madness to disaster, I think we got away with it. “There’s a big difference between mostly dead and all dead” afterall

It was a bit of a nail biter for us too 😊

Cheers! I think it’s just part of the sailing life. You don’t really have a choice when you sail out to places like this. You just have to come up with solutions (even if they aren’t the best ones) 😊

Thanks. We should have put the conversion on screen to help

It’s all part of the adventure. Sometimes it’s fun, sometimes it’s hard but at the end of the day it always makes for a good story.

All over. There are always other cruisers looking to gain experience before taking their own boat thru, locals offering to help out, professional line handlers can be booked in advance and even sailors who fly in just to get the experience before flying home again. Other than the pro’s it’s not usually a paid gig. If you’re lucky the boat owner will cover your bus/taxi back to the start point and feed you along the way. 😜 In our case, we were lucky to have friends who were going thru not long after us so they were happy to help out. The A Team were amazing!

Absolutely! There are always boats looking for line handlers to go thru. We were lucky to have some friends who were looking to practice before taking their own boat thru but shelterbay marina is the past to head if you want to offer your services.