Well, This was a jacked up day. Note to self, Diesel engines don't run so good on Jet A. (Basically Kerosene) I woke up at what I thought was 0655 because we weren't sure whether our normal “sked” (radio call in) was at 0700 or 0730. It was 0730, so, I decided to run out and fill the genset, just in case. I go out there and start to fill the genset with what I thought was Diesel in a Jet A drum. (Most of the barrels out here are mislabeled.) It felt like diesel. (Remember, I can't smell.) It didn't occur to me that there might possibly be Jet A out here. There was. And I, not realizing this, go inside for my sked, all happy that I took care of the genset. James is just barely dragging out of bed and informs me that it is barely past 0600. I forgot that my cell phone is still on eastern time. Crap. Since I got to bed at some insane hour, I grab the radio turn it on and go back to bed. The now reset alarm wakes me and I do the sked. Several hours later the genset starts running badly. That's when we realize that the fuel was wrong. We strip the tank off and dump the fuel, replace it with known good diesel, and after a brief muscle assisted fight, (It wouldn't start in the cold without me also pulling on the starter cord to assist the electric starter.) the genset is purring away again. The rest of the day goes that way. I spend the next four hours or so trying to get the Netkaster satellite Internet working, and I am convinced that either a piece of equipment has failed, or it plain wont work here. I am uncertain whether James' sat finder is working, and without one, it will be near to impossible to do this. We are concerned because. As James put it, “I think I let the smoke out of it.”, whereupon he immediately thrust it under my nose, where the smell was so strong that even I could smell it. An quick pop the cover off inspection didn't show anything burned, so we continued to use it. We are going to try to contact the Netkaster people. I also give the plumbing the once over. This is sad. I am – appalled at what kind of crap some people will put in or on the walls and call it good. I guess that's job security. We fiddled with the MSAT some more, James got the modem talking to his computer. While that was going on however, Well, I must have been exhausted, because somehow I managed to fall asleep, sitting up, on the edge of my pelican case. I must have needed a nap bad. After I got up (Somehow from my bunk) I went through the plumbing systems, dropping parts wherever I went where they were supposed to go and started to develop a minor parts list. We (Of course or you would have heard about it by now.) made the evening sked, (2007-04-23-1845, Clear - light haze, unlimited, 9.1knt/from the North, -13.1C, 42%) and a late dinner. We get tired of fiddling with the 'net connects and decide to watch “The Good Shepard”. It looked like a good movie, even though it started slow. I started falling asleep (Writing the first ¾ of this) in the first 15 minutes, and the others quickly followed suit. Wow, what a bunch of party animals we are... whoo hooo... (in my best Squidwert(sp?) bored voice.)
That's OK, there's always tomorrow. We can watch it then.
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