The big red engine, which a friend suggests we paint gold given its cost and value to us as cruisers has now been placed in the engine room! Not intalled, just placed there via a crane and lots of help. It’s very exciting, actually. Now I don’t normally get excited by engines, sorry but it’s just not in my nature. But when I poked my head down below and saw it sitting there looking so proud in its new home, my heart skipped a beat and I instantly fell in love. I said, “Oh, you’re a handsome devil, and you are going to make me a very happy woman because you’re going to make my husband a very happy man.” This is what life has come to, talking affectionately to big red engines. I would have taken a photo of the beast sitting in the engine room but I didn’t have my camera and the ladder is too high to climb up and down just for the hell of it. I don’t know how Ed manages every day up and down, up and down.

In the meantime, Ed’s bottom paint is looking fine but it’s a bear of a job. I drove down to the marina yesterday and spent a few hours weighing eBay items for shipping. Ed did a great job listing a good many of the Westerbeke engine parts and while we didn’t put a dent in the piggy bank after the cost of the Beta, every little bit helps. And truthfully we did fairly well with eBay.