Fuel Filters at anchor.

I always try to have a fresh set of primary and secondary fuel filters on board at all times.  As the fuel is burned down and begins t slosh around in the tank, all the accumulated crud and dirt is stirred up, suck out and clogs the filters resulting in fuel starvation.
Sunday morning April 19th was cool and clear with a nice northeasterly breeze.  We only had a 4-6 hour trip up to FLL (The ICAO designator for the Fort Lauderdale International Airport). Spinning off the engine filter revealed very little fuel in the bowl!  The filter was dirty enough to change, but not clogged.  The primary filter was the same story.  I asked "Dan the Flexible One"to blow into the fuel line and see if he heard bubbles. At first the line was blocked, then it cleared.
One of the design flaws I found in my 31 Hunter was that the fuel pickup tube had a brass screen in the bottom of the tube.  That screen is to trap bigger pieces of dirt and algae before they get to the filter.  The result is that you have an unreachable, unfixable clog point in the fuel system.  I want the filters to clog!  They are reasonably easy to access and change.  Disassembling the tank top in a seaway is a real mess!
With a full load of fresh fuel fuel from the ten gallons in cans I'd brought and new filters, now the exercise was to "bleed" all the air out of the lines and pumps.  Yanmar provides a very low-tech and low volume pump at the engine-driven pump to facilitate refilling the filter bowls.  It is much better to refill the bowls and then reinstall them full.  The other "trick" with the 2GM and 3GM engines is to close the raw water intake off, trip the decompression levers and spin the engine to pump fuel during the bleeding.
That part was easy, getting the rusted and inaccessible line nuts cracked to expel air required ingenuity.  Never travel with a metric diesel without a full set of open-end wrenches for bleeding.
After a memory failure that had me attempting to bleed the injectors via the return lines, we got the engine started and pulled the anchor for FLL.
This time the winds and seas were on our stern.  After slatting along for a few hours we stowed the jib and motored on using Main sail alone.  The Autohelm 3000 was completely over-powered by the 3-5 footers on our stern and we had to man the wheel for the last three hours.  The work of steering forced us to abandon the three-hour watch system and go to hourly changes at the helm.
By 1630 we were in FLL and tied up to the "wall" at Playboy Marine Center among $70-200 million dollar mega yachts.
John grabbed his duffel, said goodbye and was picked up at the dock by Pat his wife.  Dan and I hooked up to shore power, ate and went to sleep.