Well the engine is out and all dismantled. The final two pistons came out this morning. Peter had used a hone on the cylinders between the pistons and the top of the bore and then we topped off the pistons with a lubricant for the night so it would have a chance seep down the sides of the pistons and make it easier to get out. Worked like a charm and the final two came right out. It helped that Peter used a long heavy bronze rod to pound the bottom pistons to get them out. So now we have a nice block sitting on 2X4's in the engine room waiting for the parts that I will be ordering tomorrow morning. While the list isn't there is quite a bit to come in. Now it's a waiting game. It's a blessing to have the USPS to get it here.

Getting things to the US is hard. The injectors I sent a week ago have for all intents and purposes disappeared. They(the USPS) don't scan anything they send out. It goes in a ledger book. Nothing gets scanned till it reaches Hawaii. I mailed a snatch block this morning back to Massachusetts. It "should" ship out on Monday but since United Airlines(the export carrier) has no contract with the USPS, the shipment box could get bumped off the plan if too many people show up. That's(from what the local Post Master told me)is what happened to my box. It left last Monday and vanished. Glad I insured it.
As of now, the four pistons are sitting in a plastic box at the back of the cockpit soaking in diesel fuel. It's supposed to loosen all the stuff(salt, carbon and soot) thats built up on them. Official cleaning will start on Monday. We have scrapers and brushes and sand paper all set for the job. Once cleaned, everything will be sprayed with WD40 or something like that to stop the rust and then it will get wrapped in plastic to stop any more rust from attacking it. Stage one is now done. Poor Zephyr looks like a bomb has gone off inside with engine parts and bowls and bags of screws, nuts and bolts all over the place. If we are lucky, we'll have it all back together by the end of February. Our FSM cruising permit expires on March 9th but we can get it extended with no problem.

Our "Thank You" party is set for tomorrow evening with everyone that helped get us into the marina going to be there. We invited others that we've met while cruising. Tom and Janis off Tomboy will be there. For those of you that have been following our posts for a while, Janis is the pet vet that treated Blue when she fell overboard at Vuda Point Marina and nearly ripped out a couple of her claws. She used acupuncture on Blue to calm he down as Janis said she was a mad little cat. With the needles strategically placed, she mellowed right out. They just came in from Kosrae about 320 miles southeast of here. It will be great to see them again. Should be a good party.

Stay tuned. There is more coming--cleaning engine parts!