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.

Frogwatch wrote:
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.

Cedar Key is for the birds. I'd never go back there again.

On Sun, 2 Aug 2009 10:32:33 -0700 (PDT), Frogwatch
wrote:

try to buy fuel
without ethanol.

Here in SWFL I can get non-ethanol gas delivered to the house by one
of the local fuel dealers, 50 gallon minimum.

On Sun, 02 Aug 2009 18:25:59 -0400, Wayne.B
wrote:

On Sun, 2 Aug 2009 10:32:33 -0700 (PDT), Frogwatch
wrote:

try to buy fuel
without ethanol.

Here in SWFL I can get non-ethanol gas delivered to the house by one
of the local fuel dealers, 50 gallon minimum.

I've heard that you can get it up here too, but so far, no distributor
wil admit to selling it.

On Sun, 02 Aug 2009 19:07:10 -0400, Wizard of Woodstock
wrote:

Here in SWFL I can get non-ethanol gas delivered to the house by one
of the local fuel dealers, 50 gallon minimum.

I've heard that you can get it up here too, but so far, no distributor
wil admit to selling it.

It's perfectly legal for off road (marine) usage, at least it is here.

On Sun, 02 Aug 2009 20:36:01 -0400, Wayne.B
wrote:

On Sun, 02 Aug 2009 19:07:10 -0400, Wizard of Woodstock
wrote:

Here in SWFL I can get non-ethanol gas delivered to the house by one
of the local fuel dealers, 50 gallon minimum.

I've heard that you can get it up here too, but so far, no distributor
wil admit to selling it.

It's perfectly legal for off road (marine) usage, at least it is here.

Back when I had the F-250, I bought into a farmer's fuel co-op - I
qualified because "technically" we own a "farm" - even though the
fields are leased to a local farmer.

That same distributor is supposed to sell ethanol free gas, but he
says no - he can't get it, so he can't sell it.

Why, I don't know.

On Aug 2, 8:53*pm, Wizard of Woodstock wrote:
On Sun, 02 Aug 2009 20:36:01 -0400, Wayne.B

wrote:
On Sun, 02 Aug 2009 19:07:10 -0400, Wizard of Woodstock
wrote:

Here in SWFL I can get non-ethanol gas delivered to the house by one
of the local fuel dealers, 50 gallon minimum.

I've heard that you can get it up here too, but so far, no distributor
wil admit to selling it.

It's perfectly legal for off road (marine) usage, at least it is here.

Back when I had the F-250, I bought into a farmer's fuel co-op - I
qualified because "technically" we own a "farm" - even though the
fields are leased to a local farmer.

That same distributor is supposed to sell ethanol free gas, but he
says no - he can't get it, so he can't sell it.

Why, I don't know.

I am somewhat skeptical of this whole issue because it seems to be the
answer to all unknown motor problems. You'd think that if this was a
serious problem for boats that it might be a problem for cars as
well. Yet, nobody seems to have reported bad gas for their cars from
this station.
Today, I finally decided that boat motor mechanics are simply
incompetent and I had better figure it out for myself. First, I
noticed that the mechanics who had supposedly rebuilt my carbs and
drained all the bad fuel from my boat had NOT replaced the water
seperator, WTF? I took it off and could not find much sign of water
in it but i may not have known how to look.
Next, I took off the fuel filter on the engine and found it to have a
lot of red sediment in it, too fine to be rust but some was on the
output side too, hmmmmmmm. The mechanics did not bother to do this?
WTF?
Decided to drain the carb float bowls, no sign of water there either.
Conclusions will have to wait till tomorrow.

"Wizard of Woodstock" wrote in message
...
On Sun, 02 Aug 2009 20:36:01 -0400, Wayne.B
wrote:

On Sun, 02 Aug 2009 19:07:10 -0400, Wizard of Woodstock
wrote:

Here in SWFL I can get non-ethanol gas delivered to the house by one
of the local fuel dealers, 50 gallon minimum.

I've heard that you can get it up here too, but so far, no distributor
wil admit to selling it.

It's perfectly legal for off road (marine) usage, at least it is here.

Back when I had the F-250, I bought into a farmer's fuel co-op - I
qualified because "technically" we own a "farm" - even though the
fields are leased to a local farmer.

That same distributor is supposed to sell ethanol free gas, but he
says no - he can't get it, so he can't sell it.

Why, I don't know.

All they sell up here is regular, medium & high test gas. No ethenol for
us. (so far)

Gene wrote:
On Sun, 02 Aug 2009 19:07:10 -0400, Wizard of Woodstock
wrote:

On Sun, 02 Aug 2009 18:25:59 -0400, Wayne.B
wrote:

On Sun, 2 Aug 2009 10:32:33 -0700 (PDT), Frogwatch
wrote:

try to buy fuel
without ethanol.
Here in SWFL I can get non-ethanol gas delivered to the house by one
of the local fuel dealers, 50 gallon minimum.
I've heard that you can get it up here too, but so far, no distributor
wil admit to selling it.

Nobody, here, will admit to *what* they are selling.... and the
lawmakers like it that way because they fear people will shy away from
ethanol if they know it is there.

I predict that the first airplane that goes down on somebody's house
because the wasn't any disclosure that the mogas, was in reality E85,
is going to change a lot of things.

I was in Chattanooga for the weekend, an independent type gas station
was advertising non-ethenol gasoline.

On Aug 3, 9:48*am, NotNow wrote:
Gene wrote:
On Sun, 02 Aug 2009 19:07:10 -0400, Wizard of Woodstock
wrote:

On Sun, 02 Aug 2009 18:25:59 -0400, Wayne.B
wrote:

On Sun, 2 Aug 2009 10:32:33 -0700 (PDT), Frogwatch
wrote:

try to buy fuel
without ethanol.
Here in SWFL I can get non-ethanol gas delivered to the house by one
of the local fuel dealers, 50 gallon minimum.
I've heard that you can get it up here too, but so far, no distributor
wil admit to selling it.

Nobody, here, will admit to *what* they are selling.... and the
lawmakers like it that way because they fear people will shy away from
ethanol if they know it is there.

I predict that the first airplane that goes down on somebody's house
because the wasn't any disclosure that the mogas, was in reality E85,
is going to change a lot of things.

I was in Chattanooga for the weekend, an independent type gas station
was advertising non-ethenol gasoline.

I am guessing (speculating?) that the amount of fuel that has been
dumped due to being contaminated with water from having ethanol
exceeds the amount of fuel saved by using ethanol.