We were launched today at about 4 PM, but things didn't go entirely without problems. The first problem was that the new engine wouldn't start. Bud tried it with both the house batteries (the ones we use for pumps and lights, etc.) and the engine start battery combined, just to make sure it wasn't a low battery, but no go. I was sitting off the boat with Fuzzy, the boat was hanging in the slings in the launch slip. Dave, the electrician climbed on board. After a couple of minutes he came back and said that Danny, the mechanic who installed the engine, had to bypass the starter solenoid. I asked if that would work to get the engine started. He said it did, the engine was running. I was less than 40 feet away and couldn't hear it! So that will have to be dealt with on Monday, but the engine runs, and nicely.

Next little glitch, forward and reverse are switched. You push the gear shift lever forward and the boat backs up, pull it back and the boat goes forward. None of the yard people seemed concerned. They had a fifty/fifty chance of getting it right, and they missed. So that will have to get fixed Monday.

Bud brought the boat over to the slip with Danny aboard and two other yard men caught them and secured the bow and stern. Fuzzy and I pretty much just watched. Danny stayed aboard and adjusted the stuffing box (where the propellor shaft comes in through the hull) and got that adjusted so it doesn't leak when you're standing still (it's supposed to drip when the shaft is turning). Once that was done the yard guys went home and Bud and I were able to set up housekeeping in our own home again. I snapped this photo of a mast-less Earendil in her slip.

Then came the last little glitch. Bud eagerly turned on the heat pump air conditioner, only to have hot air come out of the vents. The pump is working and water is flowing through, but the thermostat doesn't seem to be working. So that's tomorrow's project. So we've fired up the window air conditioner in the companionway again, and we still get to crawl over that. Oh well, if there weren't problems we'd think we were living in a condo.

Meanwhile, most things are put away, the boat is partially cleaned inside and we had our first meal aboard. Fuzzy is very happy to have the boat back in the water and all of us aboard again. He's getting pretty blind, though and fell in the hole where the mast will go. It's only about 14 inches deep, but he fits in it completely. I had to take out the pieces of the floor around the mast to get him out.

More tomorrow, I put a couple of photos of the launch in the gallery.