July 13, 2011

I got dirty today! I woke up and went for a swim out in the marina because it seemed like a more fun way of getting some cardio then jogging on the treadmill. First thing I did today was go to the storage facility – Sun Village – to see what kind of plumbing parts we had out there. The shark tank should be in place soon and we need to have all of the pieces to get it up and running. The most important piece is a 3” bulkhead that goes in the bottom of the tank to serve as a drain to the filtration system. That is ultimately what I was looking for. EVERYTHING that was sent over from Sac in the sea freight container is covered in a 1/2” layer of dirt. So while rummaging through these boxes I got covered in the stuff – and didn’t find the bulkhead.

When I returned to the Palace, Jonathan showed me a large wooden crate, about 3’ x 3’ filled with dirt covered PVC parts. He thought that maybe the shark tank bulkhead was in there, even though some of his other workers hadn’t seen it. Well, after digging around and pulling out all of the useful stuff I found in there, I stumbled across what I was looking for. It was at the bottom of the crate in the back corner, or course. Jonathan and Sam were both quite impressed that I had found it. It really wasn’t anything spectacular, but it was dirty. Anyway, I then had to take all of the other pieces (I filled an old Fish Planet shopping cart) and wash them off.

After lunch Jonathan asked me to wash off one of the retail fish tank racks (from here on they will be called MaRS units). There are about 25 of these things that need to be cleaned up and moved to the shop. Most of them have been cleaned up but probably not as thoroughly as they need to be. Jonathan wanted me to clean one up myself so that I could instruct the other guys as to how to do it properly. The rack was also covered in a thick layer of dirt, so much of that ended up on me.

I was very excited to have a chance to actually DO something today! It was quite warm out today but there was a nice breeze. By the end of the day I was even excited that I had gotten some color on my pasty, white skin. Unfortunately, after showering, all of that color was gone – so it wasn’t the sun, it was the dirt.

Tomorrow I will be taking the day off to go diving all day! I’m going on a boat trip with Desert Sea Divers for a 3 dive trip. We will be going to something called the Cable Wreck and a couple of different reefs offshore. I guess the wreck was some sort of cargo ship carrying a load of steel cables or something so there are these huge tangles of cable near the site. It is supposed to be one of the better wreck sites in the area. I’m very excited and will take lots of pictures so stay tuned to Facebook for those.