BACK ON THE BOAT

After a long and very tiring overnight flight I am back on the boat.

Following the pattern of the last few months I am back to fixing boat problems. This time it is the dinghy engine. I have had failures of the fuel hose connections both ends and the tank pickup. I thought I had fixed all of them with a new tank and a bodge at the motor where I removed the complex push on metal connection and just connected the hoses together with clips and held them in place with zip ties.

I drop the dink in and check that the engine starts. NOPE Deader than a dodo. My engine is a Nissan [ Badge engineered Tohatsu ] 18 hp 2 stroke and generally starts first pull.

I remembered that the last high speed run before I left to go skiing had been punctuated by a couple of coughs which is often a sign of a fuel problem.So I pull the hose off the lift pump and sure enough what comes out is not petrol but water.

So I drain the tank into a container using a Baja filter which can separate the water from the petrol.

This was what was caught by the filter. Initially it was an emulsion but it settled out overnight with some interesting stuff on the interface between the two liquids.




Poured the good stuff back into the tank drained the carb and pumped the fuel line clear of water.

First pull start.



I needed the dink in working order because I was due to pick up Dizzy.

LIGHTNING

Super scary time. Riding the long chair up to the top of Snowbird when it all goes black and the lift cables start buzzing.

A minute later we get the first lightning strike.

I was glad when I got off the lift and was advised to shelter in the resturuant.

Sunny days at Snowbird

The heavy snow clouds and strong winds have blown away. So no more ice in my beard,

I just have to remember the factor 50 for my nose and ears.

So Alta is closed but Snowbird has some steep North facing slopes that hold the snow and they may make it through to the 4th of July.

Meanwhile there was some Easter going ons.

It was a little weird driving down into the valley and seeing the cherry blossom out.

SKIED ALTA AGAIN

I am a masochist. I went up for a look and got tempted by a blink of sunshine.

As soon as I got on the chair it started snowing.The viz was not to bad so I practiced styling for a while on an easy slope.

Much less beard ice build up.

ICE BEARD WARRIOR

I missed a day because the road up to the ski resort was closed most of the day because of avalanche work.

The winter storm which gave my ski resorts 2 feet of snow has carried on to blast Colorado and Minnesota shutting down airports interstate roads and knocking down power poles.

I got to Alta and decided to ski even though it was snowing and colder than expected.

This is not from that day but represents what I looked like before.

This is the after shot, note the 1 inch of ice on my beard.

Some people will have to do some serious digging before they get to drive down.

ALTA SKI

Well that first chair up the mountain gives me time to enjoy snow on the trees, the jewellery tree and the marmot tracks in the snow.

The first run down makes it all worth while. The hassle of getting here and the guilt of boarding Dizzy although this is an all cat home he is with.

LONG TIME NO BLOG

Well this is the longest gap in my ongoing story of my wanderings.

REASONS

I felt like a break then I broke both my laptops -- well that will teach me to try and do something clever with Windows 10

Then I had some guests who specifically asked that I took no photographs and made no blog posts that identified them. Mind you they were a bunch of shit HOT girl musicians and their mum. Amongst others they played the flute and bullied me into more practice and I have improved enough to produce some recognizable riffs.

MY ADDICTION TO THE WHITE STUFF

Well I am sitting in Barbados airport waiting on my next leg of my roundabout itinerary to Utah and some skiing. After all the trials and tribulations and the two cancelled flights it all came together and I am on passage with rental car booked despite my bank deciding they were some scam organisation, my usual hotel being full and my cat sitter doing a runner. But I won't believe it until I am sat on the chair lift in the ski resort of Alta.