The last ten days has been a crush of work to prepare New Morning for the Pacific crossing. We replaced portions of the engine charging system, most of the solar panels, some tank sensors and an assortment of regular maintenance (fuel filters, belts, etc.).
I'm now on the 3rd generation of day tank level sensors. The first round, the NMEA 2000 sensors from Offshore Systems just didn't work. Oddly they seem to still be sort of working in the other fuel tanks, but the water tank sensor died entirely and the day tank fuel sensor was never accurate.
The second generation was a brief, but a full try with the Maretron TLM sensors (ultrasonic). But even with a "focus tube", foam apparently defeats the Maretron sensors. Since diesel fuel foams up when pumped, and even to some degree when sloshed around, these sensors can't work for fuel (though they are working for the water tank).
Third time I went with the tried and proven "magnet on a stick", also known as a resistive sensor. It is quite literally a stainless steel rod with a magnet that floats up and down with the fluids. WEMA makes a nice one. I married it to a Maretron TLA100, tank level adapter, that turns the resistive reading of the WEMA sensor into something that can be distributed on the NMEA 2000 bus and used by the Offshore Systems transfer pump controller.
So far so good, the sensor has been quite stable in its reading. It still needs some calibration. And after we reach the Pacific I'll transfer some fuel and give it the foam test. But I'm really pulling for this third solution!
Yesterday Fay recruited two great line handlers for our canal transit on Sunday. But more on that later today!
