On our return from our day excursion from Samiopoula we had again trouble with the engine. It dropped its RPM and then recovered. This happened several times.

After Cynthia & Corinna left Samos in late July, Yiorgos Hadjipanayiotis (our Kalami caretaker) and I went to the marina and investigated this problem. First, we looked at the 2 fuel filters: a large fuel filter located under the chart table and a small finer filter on the engine. Both filters were clean.

We then disconnected the rubber hose that connects the thin copper output tube low from the fuel tank to the first large filter. Right away, we noticed the flow of the fuel every so often was impeded by small dirt particles. We assumed that these particles were floating low in the Diesel fuel tank and this was causing problem engine interruption problem.

As a test we then installed a jerrycan with Diesel fuel and connected a hose that draws fuel from the bottom of the jerrycan to the large fuel filter under the chart table. This we assumed will feed only clean fuel to the engine.

Unfortunately what we did not realize was that while the engine burns the fuel it needs from the jerrycan it also returns what it does not burn to the main tank. So, the actual fuel removed from the can is much more than what the engine actually burns.

So, I wanted to test this arrangement.