”Diesels love their oil like a Sailor loves his rum!" 'Yes they do!...Why is that Captain Ron?!' "Nobody knows”.

That is one of my favorite scenes in Captain Ron. I think about that every morning when I’m doing my engine room check. And, I do have to add oil to the engine some times. Not like the Captain Ron boat that needed oil every morning before they set out. My Lehman diesel is very unsophisticated. No turbo! No common rail computer controlled injectors. It is a very simple engine. Six cylinders 380 cubic inches and only 120 HP. The engine is as old as the boat, 43 years old. But, it is the most reliable machine on the boat and I take care of it. After our 10 hour bouncy trip up the Pamlico Sound I suspected some crud from the 43 year old fuel tanks may have been stirred up and sure enough the primary filter had what appeared to be some water in the settling bowl. The settling bowl probably holds 12 oz of diesel so the small amount was not really an issue. I drained it and it may have been 1 oz of water and some particles of whatever. I did not get a chance to do my spring engine maintenance before we left on our Ocracoke trip. But the engine wasn’t quite at it’s recommended oil change etc time anyway.

So, yesterday’s trip from Manteo was EASY. The Albemarle Sound was like glass. On one 14 mile leg I worked the WORDLE puzzle that has taken the country by storm. That thing is hard to figure out. But I got it solved in 4 rows yesterday.

And, then my eyes started playing tricks on me. Way off in the distance there appeared to be a large cruise ship on the western side of the sound. It’s a UMO! Kind of like an UFO only Marine. I looked with binoculars and it still looked like a cruise ship. I check my AIS and then is nothing shown on that bearing from us. The biggest thing I’ve heard chatter on the radio was with the Gerald R Ford aircraft carrier in the Atlantic not far from us. But, nothing could I see or hear about a cruise ship stuck in the Albemarle Sound. I consult google maps and then it looks like I’m looking up toward Elizabeth City where this cruise ship could be. I only see a channel with 11 feet of water. So, I get out my real camera with the most powerful lens and snap a few pictures. I realize that whatever that object is it’s still going to be fuzzy but maybe I’ll be able to figure it out when I blow up the pictures.

So, today’s picture is the fuzzy blown up cruise ship up near Elizabeth City, NC on the Pasquotank River. Maybe?