Breathe in...breathe out...

The gremlins have, at least for the moment, been swept into the corner. We want to celebrate that the engine is fixed, we really do, but we're only whispering that maybe (just maybe) the fuel leak is stemmed, whispering because we don't want those gremlins to hear.

Early this morning Tim had discovered the source of the leak, a badly scored ferrule in the compression fitting on the end of the line between the pump and the first injector. He spent a good bit of time with some 1500 grit emery paper trying to work the gouge out as I continued to try to find a new one to be shipped to us. It appears that Lucas and Westerbeke have the same business modelss and you can't buy or even look up part numbers for parts unless you are a dealer.

Several on-off-sand-test attempts were futile but he tried once more and had me climb up into the cockpit to start the engine. I held my breath the whole time the engine ran, waiting for the "Shut it off!!!!" to come from the aft cabin port along with a few other colorful phrases the likes of which had been blasting out of that port over the last few days. No expletives...engine running smoothly...I finally allowed myself to exhale and step to the companionway to see Tim eyeballing the engine with a spotlight just daring a drop to splash on the new, white, clean, oilsorb sheets beneath the Westerbeast's belly. No drops, no drips, no spurts. He looked up at me with that hesitantly hopeful "Could it be?".

While we worked all morning to arrive at that point, Casey (sorry if the spelling is wrong) in the Boston Fuel Injection parts department was busy trying to locate the new fitting for the pump to replace the one that was scored. No joy on a new one, but she and the tech were able to locate a used one in excellent shape in an identical pump to ours  on their back shelf. The tech cleaned it up and they are shipping it to us for a spare at a reasonable price. Yeah I know, hard to believe. Casey was the one bright spot in this whole venture. She went out of her way to help us out, not dropping the ball or passing it on to someone else because she didn't feel like messing with a $22 part. This place came highly recommended to us, and I can see why. Kudos, girl and tell your boss to give you a raise. (Have I mentioned that I'm a sucker for customer service?)

We did allow ourselves a celebratory lunch at M&Ms Cafe after which we spent a bit of time on our friend Martin's steel boat from The Netherlands enjoying his warm, comfortable pilot house and a bit of boat talk. The weather is about to fall apart so we'll spend the next few days doing laundry and shopping and cleaning, all things wonderfully uninvolved in engine repair.

A big thanks to all of you who have encouraged us over the last few weeks of frustration. And if you see any gremlins around?  Tell them we hear there are a few derelict boats still left in the harbor.