Question about paying for fuel.

Hi Milo12,

Many times In the Med the Bahamas and the Caribbean I paid with 2 credit cards and in some places we had to run each card twice.

I'm running Red Frog Marina in Panama now and most of the time for 5,000 gallons or more the yacht makes a reservation ahead of time and sends a wire transfer. If there is a difference to their favor we credit back to them on one of their credit cards or if they go over the wire amount they pay the difference on a credit card.
Even in remote areas where there is a bulk fueling facility there is an internet signal available for credit card function. We haven't had any negative issues here with credit cards.

Below is 165' Azteca 2 at the Red Frog Marina Fuel Dock taking on 8,000 gallons of diesel fuel.

We either use a bunkering agent (who we have a line of credit with) or a credit card.

Hi,

We only use a bunker agent we have a prior arrangement with owing to the quantities we load.

Gasoline for toys is paid for as required either by Cash, on Dockage Bill or Credit Card.

Thats the reason, why larger yachts (and ships) are suppost to have a land base office or a contract with a yacht (ships) management company, which is doing most of the organizing for them (booking of docking space, fuel, provisions, repair, visa, etc.). This will help the skipper on concentrating on his main job (save navigation and operation of the ship) and assure the downsizing of the ships "warchest", just to allow the chef or chief to go shopping locally and to have some emergency funds for the skipper for the ordinary little "catastrophy" . Thanks god, we live in modern times, that bigger loads of money can be wired to almost any place in world within hours.

Looks like he s asking about a nordhavn, so it s likely to be still doable with CC or cash.

Not familiar with Mexico but in the Bahamas I often pay for up to 1300 gallons on a CC with no problem. All places have modern terminals and phone or sat connections.

Just make sure you contact the CC company to advise them of your travel plans, nowadays they tend to flag transactions pretty quickly and security holds can be hard to release when you have no cell service...

Alpha Laval!!

Hi,

If the fuel didn't have water in it to start with the algae wouldn't flourish.

Also, if you are changing the GD in a FO Pury you are either loading the wrong stuff or waiting till the actual SG is obtained by FOBAS or equal to make your GD size call.

Not what I see as SOP on the vessels you are involved with.

We tend to travel a little further abroad (currently in the Cyclades) and come across all types of fuel contaminates.

Hi,

I have never seen one used for bunkering, nothing t say it couldn't be done but the throughput would be slow.

They are generally used to re circulate fuel and get the water and any solids out by the differing SG.

Read how one works here:How Alfa Laval oil separator works

It's mainly used for polishing from the main tanks to the day tank. I had one of the smaller ones on a 90'. It was great when it was new, but some of the parts that need cleaning and servicing on a regular basis are made of plastic and the little catches and locks wear and break off. A real PITA.

I would still have one, the amount of junk they remove is remarkable, but I'd have a few of the parts made in stainless rather than plastic.

lol ...years ago when in remote places we used to take on fuel through a "Baja Box" set on top of the deck fill. A stainless steel shoebox, compartmented with gradually decreasing sized screens.

The typical Nordhavn fuel stop would be around 2000 gallons - not really a large amount of fuel. I don't think you would have a problem using credit cards but do notify the card provider of your travels.

While it may not be practical to carry cash for an entire trip it's always a good idea to have enough cash to at least get you to the next place where you'll have access to more cash.

My card got denied at a self serve fuel dock in Portland Maine a few years ago.

When I called the credit card company they said, it triggered a fraud alert because it was way too much fuel to use at a self serve fuel station.

I told them it was a fuel dock, not a fuel station and they turned the card back on.