To generate power on board we have to recharge our batteries with our engine. Without gear the engine is running daily between 3 and 5 hours, which is much to long for our taste. But our batteries are more then 4 years old and do not reach their capacity anymore. According our radio communication with other yachts we know, that we are not alone with this problem.
After we figured out, that we have contaminated diesel on board which immediately blocks all fuel filters, we have to filter it manually first. The process is that we first use a manual oil change pump and suck the fuel from the main tank in to a separate 20 l tank. Second we use a funnel and some fabric and filter the diesel in to another 20 l tank. Finally we pump the manually filtered fuel in to our day tank and use it for the engine. We found a kind of routine, how to do it. However it remains quite a dirty business when doing this process in a rocking yacht in 2 to 3 m waves.
In St. Lucia we have to find a way to clean our main tank.
Gabi
Gabi_Filter_200