Oil Day

Today Arnold helped me to fill up Pachuca's diesel tanks. The tanks took 54 liters to top them up, for only 9.5 engine hours of running. This represents a consumption of 5.7 liters per hour instead of the usual 2.3 which indicates the phenomenal amount of fuel we had to waste to keep that engine with its cracked head pushing us to La Paz. No wonder there was black smoke: we had the throttle wide open but the engine could properly burn only a fraction of the fuel. We were lucky to make it back to La Paz on our own. We had to make 3 trips to the gas station, bringing back 20 liters in 2 containers each time.

We also visited a very good store that specializes in oil products across the street from the gas station. I purchased 10 liters of diesel oil, 950 ml of ATF (automatic transmission fluid) for the gear box, and two more oil filter, bringing my stocks up to 4 filters. I've beefed up my inventory after Colin surprised me by saying that the oil should be changed every 100 hours of running.

Last night Arnold and I watched Wanted, a very entertaining movie with Angelina Jolie sent to me by Stephen in Australia that Arnold had never seen before. We both like that sort of exciting adventurous escape films. ... I mean ... Why torture ourselves with Kafka's The Trial (1962 or 1993 versions)? I'd rather watch Robocop any time.

The days are getting hotter. At 7 PM the cabin temperature is still 30.9 C (88 F) but it was much hotter than that at mid afternoon. I think that Baja must be a good place not to be in the summer months and indeed many many people "summer" their boats here in La Paz or San Carlos on the mainland or wherever, then head back to North America until the following winter.