We almost burned down the boat this week

Does a boat burn down…or up…?

Either way, Scooter is fine, don’t worry. Also, if you’re only invested in these emails for pictures you’re in for a bummer week (but also don’t feel bad, the text is usually just to space out our photo-journal).

Let’s rewind. We have an alcohol stove that burns denatured alcohol. It’s awesome. Simple, cheap and it burns hot. Denatured alcohol is a cleaner used in painting applications like mineral spirits, but when it’s used, it just evaporates. So it’s a pretty bad pollutant when used as a cleaner.

Anyway, California banned its sale unless the business applies for a special recreational use permit and not very many stores have done that. People, however, still want it so the stores that can get it are always sold out/back-ordered. When each of our parents visited they schlepped 3 gallons from Montana/Colorado to supply us.

Despite the inconvenience, shoutout to California for lots of good environmental protections, like saving whales.

Now that we’re stuck in California we burned through our stores. So we called around to a few dozen businesses and finally found one who could sell the stuff. But it was 75 miles North.

In the meantime, Heet (like the fuel treatment from Oreilly’s) works as a substitute. So we filled the stove and continued as normal. Apparently, however, Heet burns a little yellower than denatured alcohol.

Taylor and I drove up, and made a day of it. Beach walks, skateboarding, wandering around malls WAY out of our price range, and discovering the PCH is not a continuous road.

Anyway, we got 6 gallons special ordered for us and got them back to the boat. Hopefully that’ll last us till we get to Mexico.

This week we received some sad news. Tay’s great uncle, and avid SailScooter reader Larry, passed away this week due to Covid. Prayers are welcome for Larry’s family, and we’re hoping the ‘vid is a thing of history soon. I wanted to cheer Tay up so I decided to attempt a little comfort food for dinner. I made homemade french fries and chicken tenders. They turned out great despite the limited resources of deep frying things on a boat.

This week we went fishing with Dave. We hopped in the dinghy before dawn and got to it. Tay caught one good one, I got skunked, and Dave proved that luck isn’t relevant cause he caught 8 or 10. We kept one, and were eager to eat our catch.

So I’m getting ready for a deep-fried fish and chips dinner. The stove was burning a little yellow last we used it, which normally is a sign of low alcohol, so I assumed it was nearly empty. I filled both burners the normal amount to go from nearly empty to full, and might have gone a little heavy hoping to have extra heat and ample cook time for the hot oil. Plus we had tons of stove alcohol so why not.

We’ve got fresh fish, a system of frying things, ample stove alcohol, and a great night planned.

Turns out, the stove was full when I started pouring. So we had a few cups of highly flammable ethanol/methanol mix sloshing around the stove interior.

When I lit it, it seemed normal because only the vapor burns and a little splashed alcohol normally burns off after a re-fill.

But the flames didn’t go down, or retreat to the burner hole. Instead, they grew and grew and grew.

Another fun detail is the fuel, when burned correctly is odorless and doesn’t leave any spot. When burned incorrectly, like just a puddle on fire, it turns into a pretty toxic gas.

So here we are. Eyes burning and watering, 3 foot flames lapping the walls and ceiling of the galley, Taylor and Eunice evacuating and me dumbfounded (and coughing) wondering what was happening. The overfilled, heat burning yellow thing didn’t occur to me immediately.

Tay. The rockstar. Hands me the fire extinguisher and a scuba mask as she bolts out of the boat with the cat to breathe.

I slap the mask on. Hold my breath and make a few feeble attempts to quell the fire.

The fire extinguisher worked instantly. It also blanketed the boat in yellow dust.

It was a good opportunity to deep clean that corner of the boat. There was still a lot of alcohol sloshing around the stove and to my chagrin, there was still at least a cup under the stove in the storage locker. Thankfully, fluids fall down and flames go up. Otherwise, this could be a pretty bad conversation with our insurance company.

Dinner was delightful but served after an extensive boat cleaning, and wasn’t plated until 10 pm.

I’m not proud of how the night went, but my fish and chips with a spicy slaw is easily in the top 5 dishes in scooter’s galley history.

The next night we got to cook for Chuck and Kitsy in their kitchen with a big gas range, and room to walk around. The simple pleasures of living on land won’t be taken for granted when we get there.