Our most recent fun about the boat has been dealing with a leaky fuel tank. We came back from Peru and Ecuador to find diesel fuel in our bilge. Getting the old tank out was easier than on other boats; we heard stories of other boats where the tank lived under the engine, or the galley had to be taken out with crow bars. The old tank was accessible and just had to be emptied, disconnected, and man-handled out. It was made out of black iron and gave 25 years of good service, but had probably been dribbling diesel for a while, bit by bit.

We contracted with a local machine shop to build a new custom marine-grade aluminum tank. This shop had lots of recommendations and had even made tanks for the Coast Guard and local ferry boats. Nevertheless, they did their best to make a tank that was too big for the space. They had the old one, we went over the measurements very carefully with them, and discussed at length how important it was to be EXACTLY the same. The tank still had to go back three times, a centimeter too big here, two centimeters too long here. Unbelievable. Que parte exactemente no entiendes? was Larry's final comment. They finally got it right.
It is now installed, and we put 5 gallons in to check, and so far no leaks! We got the air out of the engine and it started, but we have another problem with the engine - no cooling water is coming out the exhaust. Oh well!