The day before the admiral arrives

Well I am excited because Jan flys into Bham airport tomorrow at 11:00. I have been down here two weeks with our dog Peanut and we have had a great time and done a bunch of work. But it is time to reunite the family and get on with our travels. Had a good day yesterday with alot of work done until about 1:00 and then lunch and the soccer game in the boaters air conditioned lounge. Several other boaters were in there talking and watching the game. After the gameMark Davis the owner of Riverside Diesel called and asked me over for a visit and beer can chickens on the grill. He live just a few miles from the marina on the Black Warrior River. He really has a great set up over there, back on a little bay off the river proper. It is so hot down here you can bet there was a lot of boaters out cooling off on a Sat afternoon. One thing about river boating is you can boat almost EVERY day. On Lake Michigan you can only boat when the waves and the wind and the weather permit....sometimes those days are few and far between. You can tell already that it is going to be very hot today. ..... I want to mention some of the many fluids a boat needs to have on board. This is just to give you an idea of some of the small things one has to consider in boating. I say small things but if you run out of them and need them all of a sudden it is not a small thing. Our two Cummins diesel engines have their own cooling system like a car does complete with antifreeze and they are also fresh water cooled out of the river. They also each hold 15 gallons of oil. There transmission uses straight 30 weight oil as its lubricant. The generator uses 10 w 30 oil and has two cooling systems just like the engines. The engine oil is 15 w 40. The rudders and steering resovoir..check the spelling...use automatic transmission fluid type A or dexron II. Finally the trim tabs use ATF generally 90 wt. So there is a little brief rundown on the fluids needed and the variety...do not get confused and mix them or you will have a very expensive disaster. P S you also need some type of diesel treatment for you fill ups to keep the diesel from gelling. And on and on we go...Thanks for reading Tom