It’s not always as much fun as you’d think.
August 13, 2013 in Savusavu, Fiji
We use propane as our cooking gas. Filling a propane tank is usually a pretty simple process. Disconnect the tank from the boat, unbolt the tank from the deck, lug it to the filling station, and reverse the process. That’s what we did on Friday.
The man at Fiji Gas told us his fitting wouldn’t fit on our tank as our valve is vertical, not horizontal like most. We can’t replace the tank with a different one without rebuilding half the boat so we set out to find or make an adapter. We ended up at a local welder after exhausting our options at the local hardware stores. He had an old tank with a horizontal valve and said he could braze a tube on it to connect it to our tank – a kind of adapter. He did this and $100 Fiji later, (about 53 US cents to the Fiji dollar) we headed to the boat, attached the end from our barbeque hose (after cutting it off – we’ll have to worry about that later), and waited until today which would be our first chance to go to Fiji Gas again.
August 14…
This morning’s trip to the gas place was also a failure. The heat of brazing on the tube ruined a seal in the valve. We headed to a different welder to have the seal sealed. Then we headed back to the gas place. He tried to fill it again but this time, the hose I’d used to attach the “adapter” to my barbeque fitting blew off. Back to the boat for some re-engineering.
After digging out every tool on the boat, grunting and straining, and rummaging through two of our bow bins for spare parts, we were ready to have some final brazing done to seal the fixes I’d made.
“No, Sorry” the lady at the welding shop said to us. “Wayne (the welder) won’t be back until this afternoon.”
Next on agenda: consume mass quantities of Chinese food and try again later today.
August 15…
Finally, the welder came back and brazed our “adapter.” Off to the propane place. We felt like luck was on our side as the guy who doesn’t seem to like us wasn’t around. Without a word of complaint, the guy who was there grabbed our tank and started the filling process but there was still a problem. The propane was going into the tank too slowly. There’s a restriction hole on the barbeque fitting I used and I would need to drill this out. Back to the boat.
We drilled, walked and cabbed back to the propane station and this time, luck was not on our side. The guy who doesn’t seem to like us was there and he happens to be the boss of the local operation. This time he told us he was done with filling our tank… “No more. No more filling tanks with non-standard fittings. I told you this before!” No. If he had, we wouldn’t have spent a further $100 Fiji on our adapter. So we went through the “what’s your boss’s name and number” routine and headed back to the boat to make calls.
The boss agreed with us. He’d have our “friend” fill the tank. Back to the gas place but our “friend” was able to talk his boss out of it. Back on the phone with the boss. Round and round. The result was that they’d try to find a “proper” adapter, have it sent to Savusavu, and fill our tank.
After several further communications (and some additional drinking on our part), it looked like they’d found a fitting and promised to have the tank picked up, filled and back to us later that day.
August 16…
No propane tank. Not until Monday as the fitting hadn’t arrived.
August 18…
The heck with it – we’re going to go out to the point with the boat for some snorkeling and to spend the night at anchor. But to go, first we had to modify the barbeque tank to work on the boat’s main propane system. That went well but it looked like a bit a kludge with the tank tied to our cabin top. Oh well. We got it done and had a really nice time.
August 19…
Yea, propane! Our tank showed up this morning. Now to remove the kludged barbeque tank, reattach the main tank, bolt it down, install the cover…
Ah, the life of leisure!
(We don’t post this to complain about the life, but rather to give those considering this path a realistic glimpse of what it’s like out here. I hope you understand. (That and it does feel kind of good to whine a little bit.) -Rich
Rich, now what do we have to do to get the barbecue tank hooked up again?–Cyndi
