Well, I was still in the area see...

So I log on last night.  I figure a quick scout of the ice system (since I hadn't gone back to base yet) and I'd probably head back and do something else.  The scout however was promising.  One other Mak/Orca combo mining.  Not a lot of trafic in the system.  So either the gankers have moved on or I was just being overly cautious the night before.  Either way, I decide "Well, since I'm already here and I do want a bit of a buffer...".

So I log in the alt, have him warp the Orca over to where I've positioned myself, swap to the Mak and get mining.  The mining is just the way I like it.  Uneventful.  By the end of the evening I've got a load full of Glacial Mass (178 blocks with my current setup) and I head towards a refinery.

This time I pick the correct refinery (0% loss + 0% tax) and my ice is converted into Hydrogen Topes and assorted other ice products for the trip home.  Switch the Orca to travel mode (translate this into: swap the Extended Cargoholds for some Inertia Stabilizers).  Then it's autopilot both the Claw and the Orca (with it's integral Mak) back to base.

Note to self - since the Orca itself is running with a tractor beam and a salvager (not to mention the drones necessary to take care of the rats involved) I really don't need to haul around a specific salvage vessel.  So next time I log the main and the alt in - swap the Thrasher for a Cheetah.

Humm, Might want to refit that Thrasher as an AC Thrasher since I'm rather beyond the needs of a salvaging destroyer.

I also did the old runaround with the main and the alts picking up the PI from my planets (I've been mostly remembering to re-start the extractors on a regular basis).  Got the stuff dropped down to the manufacturing planet (21 advanced 1 high tech and a launch pad).  Picked up the previous batch of T2/3 product and started a batch of fuel blocks.

This should bring my reserves for my research tower up to 2 months reserves.  (I still have 2 weeks burning away in the tower) and I should only need about oh 20-25 more days before I finish all current research and can take the tower down.  So the remaining Hydrotopes should be reserved for carrier operations and I can start building up reserves of that.  The rest of the Oxytopes (and I have a lot) I can start converting into fuel as my PI volumes allow.  This will eventually build up my reserves for my Gallente towers.

But all of that is PI and not ice mining for the most part.  So this should free me up to run after high sec incursions.