Just one of those mornings....

I had no idea what time it was as I stumbled through the dark to my phone only that it wasn't yet light outside. I looked at the caller ID...Bob P....the Managing Director. "Morning Bob", I managed to mumble into the phone. He chuckled at my grogginess and said, "We have a flight to Maun. They called at midnight but I figured I would let you sleep as long as possible." "That was nice of you...by the way what time is it anyway?" "5:20", came the reply. I have been very happy with the motorbike that I have been using to commute to work here but as I opened the door and stepped into an incredibly clear and cold predawn darkness, a vehicle with a heater sounded like a really great idea. And then, about half way through a very long, cold, and dark ride to the airport it occurred to me that the airplane needed gas. We had gotten back from South Africa the night before after dark, and Air BP has been refusing to fuel us after dark due to poor lighting conditions on our end of the ramp. By the time I arrived at the hangar the sky was lightening in the east so I thought I would give Air BP a call and see if they would come fuel us or if it was still too dark. I was pleased when they agreed to fuel us and said they would "be right there". However, apparently what they meant when they said they would "be right there"was that they would "be right there" after they fueled two or three of Air Botswana's airplanes. So, it was over an hour later before we were finally able to spin our engines and taxi out and I felt a real sense of relief at finally being on our way as the landing gear retracted into their wells. That relief lasted until, about 30 seconds later when Brian said "Whoa, look at that!" while indicating the right wing. Fuel was spewing out around the right main tank filler cap. The cap was on and appeared secure but apparently wasn't seated right since we were losing large quantities of fuel around the edges. "Oh crap" I sighed. "Tell the tower we need to return." 45 minutes later, with our lost fuel replaced and our caps all secure we finally lifted off to Maun. As we reached our cruising altitude of 20,000 ft I switched on the autopilot and grabbed the thermos. I was halfway through a cup of coffee and a breakfast bar and finally starting to relax when Brian said "Uh oh.", while staring out the right window. "Uh oh??" I inquired while trying to see around Brian's head to what had captured his attention. He leaned back and pointed to the nacelle tank cap which now had fuel streaming back from it. The quantity of fuel being lost was nothing compared to the first leak and being that we were half way between Gabs and Maun with no viable alternates available we reached the inevitable decision to continue to Maun. There is no way to tell how much fuel we lost on the way but upon arrival in Maun an inspection of the cap revealed that the sealing surface inside the filler neck was slightly bent. The mechanic was doubtful that that could have caused the leak but could find no other explanation. He replaced the cap and reccommended that we replace our fuel cap o-rings as soon as we got back to Gabs. From that point forward the day was thankfully uneventful but it'd been a heck of a morning.