The Steamtug Blog

So that’s just what I did! I picked up everything and moved to Louisiana USA! Bold move, some say… But not long after arriving I started a new job to design, commission and start up a brand new LNG (liquified farts) plant in Lake Charles Louisiana.

My first day on the job was inductions, security passes and medicals. Second day I was asked to attend a review for design of the control room graphics. This means I am really early in the project and found out back on site, they are still doing the earthworks with excavators flinging the mud left after 2 weeks of tropical rain, and not one single piece of steel has been lifted vertically yet.

Boat rides up the river. Watch out for the alligators!

I told my new friends here, Sarah and Will that I love to go boating and showed Will the photos of Edelweiss which impressed him to the point that they insisted in getting their boat out of storage and taking me up the Calcesau River the following morning. But when we arrived at the boat ramp on Sunday morning, a strong smell of petrol was evident around the outboard motor. So rather than risk disaster, we headed back to their house to investigate.

After we pulled apart carbies, air filters etc, we finally concluded that the fuel pump pressure regulator had pushed apart the body gasket and was pushing fuel out. Will said it smelled like gas, but hey, I haved worked in lots of gas plants and it smelled like ordinary petrol to me! I tightened the body screws which didn’t help much, and I asked Will why the fuel pressure would be so high? Then he remembered he had just installed a brand new fuel tank, and we found it didn’t have a vent, and in the hot sun had vapour pressured up. Releasing the pressure solved everything. But now with the heat of the day, we decided to barbie some steaks and go in the evening. So lots of beers, and Will brought back inside steaks that were 30 cams thick! And the juiciest I ever tasted. Sarah did some salads, and made pepper poppers, a chilli pepper hollowed out, filled with cheese, wrapped in bacon and lightly toasted on the barbie. Mmmm delicious, all washed down with Shiner bock beer from Shiner, Texas.

We headed back to the boat ramp as the sun was setting and cruised past the casino, docks, lake side houses and past a floating log on the river, which shook its tail and disappeared under the water. What the…. We double backed and looked again to see it was an alligator nearly 2 metres in length! Holy crap!! Those things really do exist!