Ended up getting out of work and had a full day. Ran out to 100’ and went to work on’em. It was a little snotty headin’ out but layed down quick for a beautiful slick ocean. Didn’t have to work very hard to catch a 3 man limit of bsb’s. Lots of blue knot heads. Caught our fish very quickly and couldn’t catch anything else. Did catch a few b-liners and pinkies on a sabiki. There were just too many bsb’s. Saw a sunfish slowly swimming under my boat about the size of a geo metro. Ran back in and messed around in 60’ & 70’ and nothing but more bsb’s, not even one grunt. ??? Started to head in and had a little motor problem, couldn’t get above 2000 rpm’s -“Safe Mode” I guess (haven’t checked into it further yet- fuel related). I chugged in for a little and went ahead and called my tow service - Tow Boat. This was a first for me. They responded very quickly and were very courteous and professional. I will be a member for life for sure. Well worth the inespensive membership fee and I highly recommend them. And also on the way in we saw a huge right whale! What a day!
Special thanks to Capt. Hamilton Foster for the drag in.
Good job out there! Sorry about the go go problem!!
“Miss Amanda”
-KeyWest
-Bluewater 2020CC
-Yammy F-150God is GOOD!! ALL the time!!
The shortest distance between a problem and a solution is the distance between your knees and the floor.
The one who kneels to the Lord can stand up to anything.
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Exactly the same thing happened to me. Special thanks to the ethanol. Cost me $1200 to have injectors cleaned-up. Appearantly, this crap, eats even the ethanol resistant lines, turns into gummy crap, and as soon as it hits the oxygen in injectors, crystallizes and hardens like a f$$$n epoxy. I would rather fill my boat with jack piss in gas than ethanol.
Pardon my harsh message, I had to unload. No offense to the agency created these regulations without testing, and have ruined my engines.
Sunfish, Right Whale, and a bunch of meat, that is a great day on the ocean. And you got to test out your Tow Service. Good luck with you engine trouble.
Sounds like you had a great day, sorry about ur engine prob. We need to create a forum that list the stations selling NO ETHANOL fuel and the ones that are selling the watered down kind. I cant afford 1200 engine bill. Just an idea.
Hey SCSuperfly are you using the Sta-bil in your fuel? I keep it in my tank faithfully, but am curious to know if you would still have problems even with that in there.
As far as the tow line parting…they use dbl braided nylon for the tow. I think you would pull out your cleat before that stuff would pop. I was in the CG and have seen one part, but that was towing a 90’ trawler in 15’ seas with 1 1/2" line. I think they use at least 3/4" to 1", I think you were fine.
Nice catch and pic of the sunfish! Also, remember it’s against the law to get within 500 yds of that right whale, unless they pop up on you of course.
I actually have not used any fuel additive yet. I guess you see what happens if you don’t. I jumped up front for a quick pic and then back behind my center console. The tow line was hooked on my bow eye and if it did part it would’ve shot down towards the water and not at my head. The tow line was at least an inch so it had the potential of lifting my entire boat out of the water. (Can’t believe I have to explain this.) The whale did pop up out of nowhere and the sighting was radio’d in right away. No big deal.
I cleaned out a lot of tanks and replaced a lot of fuel lines and put new filters on peoples boats when ethanol first hit the streets here. I would say the biggest key in preventing ethanol problems is using star-tron ethanol additive and having a 10 micron filter with a sight bowl on it. Have not had any more fuel related problems from the folks who keep regularly using star-tron with every fill up of gas. I no longer even reccomend to them to try and get non ethanol fuel unless thier regular fuel station carries it. Haven’t tried any of the other additives, have had good luck with star-tron so never bothered to try sta-bil or others.
Right now I’m sitting on 500 gals of fuel in big boat that is going on allmost 8 months old and have treated it twice with star-tron, ran about 30 gals thru it last week with no probs whatsoever, drained filters afterwards, the fuel looked great with no water or seperation. After running another 40 gals or so thru I am going to top up my tanks with premium tho to raise the octane up a bit which I’m sure has dropped a little.
One thing I’ve noticed at the stations selling ethanol free gas is they only are carrying it in premium grade. If they had regular grade ethanol free gas at the station I allways use I’d use that, but the ethanol situation can be won by using the right additive and filters.
If they go to 15% ethanol we’re all screwed tho!!
Russ B.
God is great, Beer is good, People are crazy
I talked to a dealer in Murrells Inlet and he has seen boats with gas that they tested as high as 18% ethanol. He also showed us the valves of a Yamaha 90, 4 stroke with 12hrs., that was crystallized by ethanol gas. The fuel came out of a fiberglass tank on a Boston Whaler. He said it has been a real problem.
