Here in French Polynesia, cooking gas is one of those price-controlled items, currently 2800 CFP for a 13-kilo cylinder, with another 3000 CFP cylinder deposit. The local yacht service agencies will fill your cylinder for a hefty premium if you wish, otherwise it's a DIY operation. The thrifty cruiser (yes, that's us) has a hose and fitting for their own type cooking gas cylinders fabricated before leaving for this place. Downwind Marine in San Deigo can fix you right up. Get about 10 feet of hose - it's ¼" inside diameter, heavy rubber. Purchase some little hose clamps too, and a ¼" to 3/8" barbed adapter. Once arriving in French Polynesia hike to the local hardware store and for around 1000 CFP purchase the local cylinder fitting with gasket, which has a 3/8" nipple, along with a meter of fiber reinforced clear hose, then build up your adapter assembly.
In the remote islands butane is sold at fuel stations and some of the food shops. At Nuku Hiva and Hiva Oa it's a short walk from the dinghy to the fuel station, better for lugging a heavy butane cylinder around. Go get a butane cylinder, bring it back to your boat, then hang it high as you can, upside down off the boom and put your own cooking gas cylinder on the lowest stern step. Connect the adapter hose at both ends but leave the connection at your cylinder a bit loose. Next, crack the bleed valve on your cylinder with a screwdriver to let gas escape the empty cylinder. Open the valve on the butane cylinder and observe liquid flowing through the clear section of hose. A soon as frosty liquid is leaking from the loose connection at your cylinder's end, tighten it up and you've purged the air from the hose. Next open the fill valve on your cylinder but leave the bleed valve cracked so gas can escape while filling your cylinder. With our American cylinders it takes about 20 minutes to fill, and you know it's about done when frosty liquid butane starts spitting out of the bleed valve. Once it's pretty much all liquid coming out screw the bleed valve shut, then close all cylinder valves and disconnect the hose at your cylinder end. BE CAREFUL! Keep a close eye on things, no sparks, and always do this at the stern of the boat so leaked gas blows away from the vessel! That escaping liquid is really cold - wear gloves to avoid risk of frostbite.
We can fully fill one empty cylinder, then fill a second one perhaps 2/3's full before the local butane cylinder is empty, so I monitor the flow of liquid in the clear hose section and modulate the bleed valve open and closed since liquid will never come out of the bleed valve.
If you're about to put the newly filled cylinder into service, let is bake in the sun for a couple hours to develop some gas pressure, otherwise you may never get your boat plumbing purged. Butane develops much lower pressure in the cylinder as it gasses off so if you've been using a pressure gage to determine how much propane you've still got in a cylinder, that'll be pretty much useless with butane. The lower pressure will also make it take a lot longer to purge air from your plumbing if you've let the gas run out (took us about 3 minutes once), and the lower pressure can sometimes allow the butane to puddle so that when the striker finally contacts the gas, there's a big "poof". Somewhat disconcerting. Propane can do the same thing, however because of its much higher cylinder pressure it tends to flow much more aggressively out of the burners and light more reliably. Butane actually has more energy depending how one measures it, and our cooking appliances seem to like it just fine.
Oddly enough propane is available in Tahiti - one can take their cylinder to a local Mobile station near Marina Taina then return a couple days later to collect it, paying about 4500 CFP for the privilege. Folks do it all the time.
Now you're cooking with gas!
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