So winter went by with some trips to Chattanooga to change oil and transmission fluid. We went to the Miami Boat Show in February to investigate a number of additions that are on our list. During that trip, I discovered that my air filters needed to be changed (read replaced) with the new upgraded model. Now instead of boring old black filters on my engines, I have pretty new blue ones!!
And the reason they turn blue, is the color of the oil that you coat the filter media with. All those other pieces and O-rings are buried inside the housing behind the blue filter.
This was our first trip to the Miami show. We've done the Ft Lauderdale show a few times, but never this one. It was overwhelming and virtually impossible to locate the dealers/booths that you want to find. Obviously, they need an architect to help them with everything from graphics to layout. (I wonder how I can turn that into my retirement job??) In any event, we had a great trip. Our friends from Maryland came down and met us for the show and that always makes things more fun. We walked until we couldn't anymore, got more info than we could or wanted to carry, ate some great food and came home with more ideas.
A few of our ideas are beginning to take shape. The generator now has an hour meter that a human being can read. Our bilge heaters have their own outlets so the floor isn't covered with extension cords anymore. A new VHF radio along with a AIS transponder are waiting to be installed. The inverter that will be used to keep the generator from running non-stop is in the garage until my electrical guy figures out how we are going to tie it, the batteries and new solar panels together. And we have a new floor covering in the cockpit!! This doesn't seem like a big deal until you have had to try to clean black marks off of white, non-slip fiberglass. Oh do I love this stuff!!
The not so great part of our spring was finding the bottom of Chickamauga near Island Cove Marina. That turn out to be a very unpleasant experience. So I've been told that there are only those who have run aground and those that will - hopefully having now joined the club that means I don't have to do it again to maintain membership. Anyway, what ever was down there, in the middle of their marked channel BTW, was hard enough to bend both props. BoatUS had to pull us off so got to add that to the list of "done that's".
While not officially summer, it is Memorial Day weekend. Our daughter is in from Texas and we're back to Bluff dock in Chattanooga. Time to enjoy her short visit and have some fun on board. There are some festival events happening in town over the weekend so after we check those out we will take a run back up river to Paradise cove. That is a popular place near Harrison Bay and is usually packed with boats and all variety of activities. So the Flag is flying and this day set aside to remember all those who sacrificed everything for us to be able to enjoy all these freedoms. Let's take this time to honor, to salute and to thank them. That's what we will do as we end this spring weekend.
