The boat renaming ceremony worked, but you can't fix stupid

It was the dawn of a new day.   There's that dumb phrase again.

We had done all we could do.  We installed two sets of Filter Bosses, performed a boat renaming ceremony, and the weather forecast was good.  The stars were all in alignment.  Even Charlie the grouchy three legged cat was begrudgingly tolerating Gertie.

I checked the Filter Bosses for dirt and water and everything looked fine, so we fired up the engines and made the 100 foot trip to the fuel dock.  It was uneventful.  We took on 100 gallons of cheap diesel, only $3.75 a gallon.   Cripe, I remember paying 25 cents a gallon for gas, but I digress. 

Since everything was working well, we decided to leave Atlantic Highlands (New Jersey) and make a short hop to Manasquan, about 30 miles. We got underway at 9:30 on smooth glassy seas and calm winds and motored away from our home for the past seventeen days.  

Drift Away just hummed along.  Every half hour or so, I'd go down to the engine room to check the filters while Pam drove the boat. Everything was OK but I noticed a little bit of water in the starboard engine. Piece of cake. I switched to the #2 filter and the engine kept right on a runnin'. I loosened the lid on Filter #1, put a small cup under the drain, opened the spigot until I got pink diesel, and then closed the spigot. I switched back over to the #1 filter, and again everything kept right on a runnin'.

Back up to the helm where I enjoyed the pleasant day, winds out of the SE at 10 to 12 now, seas 1 to 2 feet, no problems. And then the starboard engine started to slow down. I flipped the Filter Boss switch but I was too late. The engine died. *&^%$@%^^%*!!

Back down to the engine room. I put a light on the Racor. It looked as clean as a whistle.  Clogged fuel line? I disconnected it and blew it out.  It didn't seem to be clogged.  I and hooked it back up.  Now what to do?  The filter looked clean, but I had to do something and so I decided to change it. Now, those of you who are careful readers may have realized what I had forgotten to do up in the second paragraph, under the pic of the dawn.
 
I reached for the T handle and it was already loose. I had forgotten to tighten it back down after draining the water out of the filter. I removed an engine filter bleed screw. Dry as a bone. It took about a half hour, but I got the fuel lines and engine bled and then I double checked to make sure I had tightened the filter lid.  I went up to the helm and started the engine.

You can install all the fancy dancy equipment on your boat that you want, but you can't prevent an idiot from screwing it up anyway.

The boat ran fine the rest of the way to Manasquan, and the vacuum gauges didn't budge.  As we approached the inlet, we got bounced around by a couple of morons in big sportfishermans who passed us and tossed HUGE wakes.   After docking, I put the Filter Bosses in fuel polishing mode and, sure enough, the starboard filter (the one with the pickup tube low in the tank) picked up a lot of gunk and water.  My 800 gallon fuel tank is actually two 400 gallon tanks, and even though I manually cleaned the one with the pickup tubes, I think that the water and much of the crud is coming from the other one.  Maybe today I'll see about manually cleaning them again.

It looks like we'll be here for the rest of the week unless the weather forecast changes. Right now, it looks like crap with strong winds out of the wrong direction.