A Good Run Ashore!

As I sit here trying to assemble my thoughts....one thing is abundantly clear. A big glass of Guinness is good...two are wonderful....but the third one should be approached with caution. But...as the big boys have said...it was a great run ashore yesterday.

I finally got down to changing the oil in the NexGen 5.5 KW generator yesterday....it had enough hours on it for its very first oil change. All I had to do was route the oil drain hose by means of drilling a hole in the sound shield base, poke the hose out, take off the drain plug at the end of it, point it into a two gallon jug and that part was done....right? Well now....who ever put the drain plug fitting together must have been Charles Atlas-san...a very strong Japanese fellow who works for Kubota. It might as well have been welded together.

Then just to add to the fun.....when I tried to get the oil filter off....remember this is the first oil change...I discovered the paint job given the unit at the factory worked much like welding too. Lots of good exercise getting the filter off just to discover the new filter was not the right size.

So..off to town on a shopping run.

The friendly CarQuest guy spent the best part of an hour coming up with a new part number for the filter only to discover both numbers he had led to identical filters as I had in my hand. Did a google search on my Blackberry...called NextGen in Florida. Brief phone call resulted with...."Oh yeah...the American made filters are bigger than the Japanese ones that come with the engine."

Well go figure!

In the end....an afternoon spent doing a thirty minute job. Ah, boats.....you gotta love'em.

Got cleaned up a bit and went to TGIF despite it being a Thursday, to attend my first ever Cape Fears Singles gathering. It was a very nice group of people and I will look forward to attending more of these activities. I look forward to having some of these folks out on the boat for a day of sailing.

I then fell into an Irish bar on Front Street. I have found a new home away from home!

Just as Vic Copeland touts a certain bar in Fernandina Beach....I now offer this one up as being a very nice place to visit.....if for no other reason than to meet the bartender....who is quite a lady.

I accused her of being on a piece work pay scale as she made sure the glass never got empty.....which is a novel idea in Wilmington from what I have noticed of most bar tenders!

Now where is my aspirin bottle....it is here somewhere.