FUEL and I!

Fuel,.......Ever stop to think about how much it effects your day to day doings?...Well let me tell ya. First it was ethanol...You know that corn crap that is supposed to be helping american farmers and not the corporate giant *yeah right*. Two years ago i put it in my fiberglass gas tank in the speedie and had less than one week before it started melting the inside. Three weeks and 15 lost trips and $3500 later we have a new heavy duty aluminum tank in the boat..
This years fuel problems started another way. I repowered and had all new yadda dadda do gauges put on and the new fuel gauge was reading full all the time...Well I know nobobdy was filling my rig up in the wee hours of the morning cuz I'm a good guy but we can always dream!
After many trips and phone calls with my dealer I convinced them that the problem was on their end and not mine...I knew the new gauge needed to be calibrated but nobody knew how to do it. So for the last week I have been runnin trips guess estimating how much fuel I have in the boat. Great feeling with a new repower that was over 20K! My dealer finally called to say they were pretty sure they knew what was wrong *the gauge had to be calibrated.....DUH* and to bring it back in. Now I got a working gauge on my new 20k motor...Man I feel lucky!
I also discovered some fumey smells in the transom that just wouldn't leave me alone and came to the conclusion that the stainless steel gas line they put in with the boat when they built it in 93 had a small crack somewhere under the deck. It is not accessible without butchering the boat so I ran a new flexible line through the chase and 86'ed the stainless line.
The last two days I have been running errands and towing the boat back to the shop for the gauge fix and 20 hour service and notice that the gas station I use here in Wellfleet has changed it's name from Valero to Irving...I also notice they are marketing on that *green is clean* crap as it now stands out very clearly from the roadway...I haven't stopped to look yet but I fear they might be one of the first stations to go above E10 and if so will have to find gas elsewhere....
Gas was an even $4.00 a gallon yesterday....No end in sight...
I am raising my rates for the remainder of the season....Didn't want to do it but I have a mortgage to pay and kid to raise just like everybody else. I will honor my old rate for my bookings that I already have made.
So as you can see...FUEL has been ruling me of late but I think I am over the hump and am looking forward to the 2008 season.
On another note, I bought a HD camcoder and hope to take alot of video this summer and put together an hour long HD DVD over the winter...
I've also come to realize that I am either very uneducated or the technical writers these foreign countries use that manufacture goods for the US need a brush up on their english and translation skills. It used to be instructions and tech manuals were written by english tech writers...Now your looking at companies manufacturing high tech products that have foreign tech writers attempting to write instructions in broken english....Gotta love it....
On the fishing front, I had Greg and Lori Smith onboard last Sunday. We just couldn't get out of our funk and truly slay the fish. Alot of boats on the water up the estuaries as well as the open water in the bay....We eventually retired to the Cheese Locker with my good friend John Kaufmann and site casted to some nice fish in very skinny, clear water. Greg took a couple on a new fly John showed me recently while Lori caught up on her sleep and tan on the forward deck.
Memorial Day the wind was hammering but my guys from NH still wanted an outing....We fished the open water and hammered some nice fish on topwater stetzko needles. No big fish but several low 30" fish on top and the guys seemed to have a great time.
SW wind has been honking the last 4-5 days but tomorrow looks good and I am going to fish with my knee surgeon and will have a report later....
Until then....back to the boat for more maintainence...;)