...I wouldn't have no luck at all.

Daniel arrived when he said that he would at 0700 this morning. He said that yesterday, the group of the marine surveyor, Bruno, and he had taken the pump to the Bosch shop and put it on their test machine. After a lot of purging (Americans call it "bleeding") of air out of the system, the pump performed nicely, ejecting diesel in sufficient quantities. Lesson: the injector pump works. But will it work when installed?

In only 30 minutes, we had the pump installed. I mentioned his rapid work and he smiled ruefully and said, "Tour le jour. Tour le jour.", meaning that he had done it every day and had it down.

We purged the fuel system as much as we needed, and kept purging frequently, a lesson that Daniel learned at the Bosch shop. Still, try as we might, the engine would not run on its own. With a bit of starter fluid, sure, but not on its own. After a few hours (hours) of fruitless purging and looking for air leaks, it was 1215, past his Friday noon stopping time. He departed the boat, leaving his tools and jacket. We thought that he had simply gone to use the restroom, but he never returned. At 1300, Bruno appeared and said the Daniel would return on Monday, and that they would bring with them an even better mechanic from another shop. The bottom line for us is that this group has NO BLOODY IDEA what's wrong. None. I think that the 600-pound gorilla in the room is the timing problem, and I'm sure that we'll address that on Monday. I mean, what's left to consider?

Best case, now? We have the weekend to stew in our anger or see more of Tahiti. We choose the latter. We'll rent a car on Sunday and see the rest of the island. With luck (not that we've had much good luck, but luck always changes), we'll leave Monday night and arrive Tuesday night in time to get pulled on Wednesday. We'll work quickly until Saturday, and at least Conni will fly out on Sunday in time to arrive home on schedule. If we complete everything, and that's at least conceivable, I'll leave, too. Otherwise, I'll stay and get things completed that should be. If we're clever, we can get done all of the things that I can't do alone and that only Conni can do. Then, I'll be there to complete all of the scrubbing and packing. Conni will have to make new reservations for me, but she's a past master of that.

Ain't we optimistic?

You'll know when we do.

Interestingly, the injector pump that we ordered from England is finally in Papeete, so if we need that pump to get out of here, we have a shot at it.