We awakened pretty early today, anxious about getting to Marina Taina and meeting our mechanic, Adrian, and beginning our engine-switching chore. We endured the usual chores of checking out of the marina and then began collecting and stowing water hoses and power cords.

Conni made friends with the woman crew on Summer Rose, the Passport 42 next to us, and invited her to visit Wings after Conni had visited Summer Rose. She, Mary, and Conni were joined by Mary's husband, Steve, and they toured Wings. Nice folks from Seattle with whom we hope we can stay in touch.

We cast off lines and motored close to the Faa'a International Airport to request permission to cross in front of their air strips. After checking their schedules, they gave permission for us to pass. We repeated the contact when we reached the other side of the field. Our mast height wasn't a problem, I'm sure, but a big sailboat with 100-foot plus masts must be a danger. They're right to request that vessels stop for permission.

No room at the inn...no moorings available until Thursday or Friday, according to Marina Taina staff. We finally mastered our "burner phone", the cheap phone that we bought for just such communication, and contacted Adrian that we were near. We simply found a spot and dropped our anchor, amazingly, quite close to Adrian.

Adrian... He's Hungarian by birth, was trained as a automation engineer, and has worked in the oil industry in the Gulf of Mexico. He seems to us to be in his late 30s or early 40s. He met his wife in South America and they have one kid. They're liveaboards! He has a Hans Christian 34, designed by the same designer of our boat. He's installed 11 of the Beta engines and showed us two of his installations in boats nearby. They were gorgeous installations with special attention paid to solid connections to the boat's engine mounting system. The engines started immediately and ran quietly. Conni and I were both highly impressed with the installs. They give us hope that we'll end the two weeks or so with a new, engine in a great installation. Since he's a factory-approved installer, he will sign off on our paperwork when he's done and the warranty will begin.

The plan is still to get the work done in the water, and he intends to use our boom with some extra supports for the engine weight. The more that Conni and I can do, the less we pay him, and he's fine with that, in fact he encouraged it. Since we can't get a mooring until week's end, we'll start the process on Monday next, or that's the plan.

We are very encouraged by Adrian's demeanor and apparent skill set and we have very high hopes for the process.

No word, yet, on the propane regulator, but we think that we can get a small tank for our grill and use it to cook some food: burgers, chicken, and such, and perhaps we can prepare some of the other food that we brought.