Wife and I went to Cedar Key for our anniversary and took the Tolman
to explore some of the islands. Got a nice but very expensive suite
($168/night, yes, I am cheap) and had an ok time, Cedar Key is a good
place but almost hostile to boaters. There is no place for a sailboat
to dock as we found on several previous trips and the city marina has
no fuel dock. The only place on the island to buy fuel is a Chevron
gas station so I filled the Tolman's tank thinking I'd use as much asd
I could and siphon the rest into my truck to burn it quickly.
Launched her and were on the way out when sputter, sputter, sputter so
I shut her down, She ran fine in neutral but when I put her in gear,
she died. Finally she died even in neutral. CRAP. Cranked up the
pull start 9.9 kicker but that would only run just above idle, WTF.
Finally noticed the kicker fuel line had a crack and it was sucking
air and spraying fuel into the water. A quick repair with Swiss Army
knife and it got us back to the marina. The Dockmaster saw us come in
and came over to see what was the problem. He immediately asked where
we had bought fuel and he just shook his head telling me that that gas
station had underground tanks that got water in the fuel. I asked
where to buy fuel and he said "somewhere else on the mainland, maybe
Georgia". Holy SH*&T.
We finally came home stopping at Manatee Springs State Park, very nice
and a great place to swim on a hot day. Stopped at a private marina
on the mainland where they told me to put lots of Stabil in the fuel,
replace the water separator, drain the carbs and try to buy fuel
without ethanol. They told me that Cedar Key could not get ethanol
free fuel, even at the marina if they ever put in a fuel dock.
All in all, Cedar Key is a nice place but their ambivalence to boaters
is legendary. They have a beautiful new municipal dock but it is
intended only for fishing with no way for boats to tie up.