Friday, November 10, 2017

Titusville - Propane recertification

Titusville is full!
We go through a propane tank every three months or so. We're still using tanks from our previous Fleetwing, a 38 ft Ericson sailboat. We found out the hard way that a tank can expire after 12 years. That is, the station will refuse to refill the tank if it is more than 12 years old. Sometimes that date may be overlooked but when you need the propane to be refilled the most, you can count on the filler seeing that date and refuse to refill it.

The original date was 10/2003, the new date is 11/2017 and pressed right into the aluminum. Some machine they must have. 
Our tanks are of good quality and made of aluminum so they should  be okay. I found a welding supply house that did recertifications and I took both tanks over for that. One was empty and one was almost full. They charged $20 each for the testing and now both are good for another five years. I thought I would get a sticker for each tank but this is a welding supply house, they impressed the date right into the aluminum! I don't have to worry about a sticker falling off.

All docks have security gates but you better remember to bring the pass card!
The winds have returned, 15 to 20 kts for the next couple of days. We have a huge powerboat upwind of us that's providing good protection from both the wind and the waves that manage to reach the harbor. "A" dock is better protected than most but they are all much better than being on a mooring which has no protection! Titusville Marina is full even on "C" and "D" dock which in the past seven years have never been full. In fact, they have been mostly empty. Not so this year.

Titusville does have one dock, "E", that's has floating docks but it's for smaller boats. All the docks have badge lock gates for security but I've never heard of anyone having a problem even before they installed the gates. We have a car for the weekend but Saturday does not appear to be an exploring day with rain and high winds in the forecast. We'll get out Sunday.

2 comments:

jack cothren said...

hey bob .. we have an older tank and have gotten it certified twice at :Red Star" gas down near marist ... i don't recall them charging for recert ... when we've refilled ... we have the added problem of having a horizontal tank, which is exempt from the OPD requirement, and many refill places will not fill it ... its boating !

Bob423 said...

Jack, I thought $20 was a little high but at the local Ace hardware store they mentioned a price of $60 (not by them but by a propane tank supply house). At any rate, the deed is done. When I’m out of propane while cruising, I don’t have a lot of choices when I’m without a car.