After all the complaining I did about how hard it was to remove the water tank you'ld think I'd done a major feat of manual labour.

Well I lost most of the feeling in my left hand and just about couldn't work. The doctor(at great expense I might add) told me I have carpel tunnel syndrome.

Gee no shit, he told me that 2 years ago.

I didn't pay much attention then and now its worse. I'll live, but he's going to get back to me on what I can do about it.

So anyway, enough whining.

When we last looked I had a nice open space under the sole where the water tank used to reside.

It's still there since it appears there is nobody on the planet that makes custom sized water bladders. At least no one would admit to it anyway.

I ended up buying a standard sized Plastimo tank which just didn't want to go in where the old tank came out of. I put it in a locker under the vee berth. This has unfortunately upset the fore/aft trim some so I'll have to figure out how to make it right. For the time being however I have a functioning water system and thats a good thing. It's actually bigger than the old one by a bit more than half. 26.5 gal as opposed to 16 gal.

Water, however is heavy stuff and with the tank full it puts the bow down by about 3in. Luckily, I weigh just about the same as the full water tank so all I have to do is stay in the cockpit and the trim is perfect. This also gives me a perfect excuse not to restart my diet.

Ok so it's not a great plan. I'm working on it.

The diesel leak is another story.

After running the motor for a few hours last weekend I discovered there was about a 1/2 cup of fuel in the bilge blanket under the motor. I was fearing a cracked injector pump, and hoping for a simple cracked fuel line or a loose fitting. I tightened up all the fittings that would turn and when pressure was applied I heard a slight hiss and another drop of fuel dripped out.

Bummer.

I just knew it was going to be bad. I started by pricing all the parts in the general area of the leak and at $260 and a bunch of learning to fit and time it, I was hoping it wasn't the injector pump.

Of course the local marine place didn't have all the parts I needed. I mean why would you stock the o-rings used on the majority of the Yanmar engines used in sailboats. Luckily I found the local injector rebuilder had 197 of the little devils in stock. $1.10 each. I bought 3 . I also bought a new fuel pipe just in case.

When I removed the fuel pipe fitting and looked at the o-ring in there, it was mashed and nearly broken. I replaced the o-ring and after bleeding the line the engine started right up. It idled right away. It didn't falter and stumble and try to die on me. I could shift from forward to reverse without the engine stalling. To say I was pleased would be such an understatement. I'm still grinning about it.

$1.10 just may be the cheapest marine repair in the entire history of boats.

Of course the new found fuel pressure will probably be to much for the injector pump and it will die the next time I really need it.

Don't think you can hide Mr. Murphy, I can smell the diesel on your breath..............martin