I posted last week that in filling up my water tanks I inadvertently opened the wrong cap and put approx. 35 gallons of water in the fuel tank. Making a mistake like this has always been considered a major screw up that many feel has the potential to cause problems not easily corrected. I'm posting to say that my experience in removing the water was a simple procedure. ( that would assume that you didn't have the engine running at the time the water was being put in the tank )

After realizing what I had done I attached a 1/2" diameter hose to a dowel with zip ties to keep it rigid allowing the hose to extend 1 inch below the dowel and put the end on the bottom of the tank. I hooked up the other end of the hose to a 12 volt 'Water Puppy' and pumped the water from the tank to a Mr. Filter that had the discharge going to a 5 gallon bucket. Once the bucket was filled with water I transferred it to a 5 gallon jerry can. I did this procedure 6 times. The 7th time I was pumping water out it started to become milky and a bit ugly looking. I continued to pump for a few minutes and it started to come out clear so I stopped. As a note,,,, the water was amazingly pure. You could drink it.

I then disconnected the intake hose on the Racor and connected it to the 'Water Puppy' and made a loop of diesel that came out of the feed tube to the engine and back to the tank allowing it to filter through our 'Mr Filter'. I circulated the diesel for about an hour. In looking at the water in the 'Mr. Filter' I only saw 2 or 3 ounces and stopped.

We then added 100 gallons of diesel ( we carry 200 and only had 30 in when I added the water ).

The next morning I took the original tube with the dowel attached and again placed it to the bottom of the tank and pumped 2 gallons to the 5 gallon bucket through the 'Mr. Filter'. There was only about an ounce of water in the filter and I stopped.

Since that screw up we have spent the last week away from our slip in Bocas Del Toro exploring a number of islands and getting some pretty good beating from the 5 foot swells that we sailed through. During this time the engine ran for about 4 hours and the generator about 6 hours. I checked the Racors occasionally and so far there is not a drop of water in the bottom.

All that being said I believe that the diesel tank is in good order. There is no water in the tank and because I poked around the bottom of the tank with the hose ( like performing liposuction )I was also able to clean the bottom of the tank of all the debris.

A screw up is a screw up but pumping water into your diesel tank I have found is not the catastrophe most feel it is and is easily corrected.

Your milage may vary.