I spent the morning up at Gringo's Cantina, aka the office catching up on some computer work. Beth worked on cleaning the boat and straightening out the foward locker while I worked a MacGyver to install a new bilge pump in Mahalo Nui. It looks like the main leak has been stopped but there is still a little leak but the frequency that the pump runs is much less than before. J and Jerr continued working on things but as today is Mexico Independence day, very few people were working on anything. I got the aft locker put back together and checked the rudder operation as well as greasing the Honda. J, Jerr, and I attempted to start the engine on Mahalo Nui but were not meeting with success. It wasn't until I was bleeding the fuel system that I noticed the fuel was cloudy. We pumped some into a clear bottle and it appeared to be about 60% water. I disconnected the inlet and return lines and bled the system dry. We then used known good fuel in a bottle as the "tank", bled the fuel system until proper fuel was returning and then attempted a restart. The engine on Mahalo Nui roared to life and was running perfectly. The next task will be to either drain the tank and replace the fuel or to rig some type of temporary tank for the run up to the repair yard. We still have the task of removing the rudder to straighten so she can steer but with a solid engine, the outlook is much more positive.
We grilled steaks and enjoyed a nice quiet evening.
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