The day we have been waiting for...

There it is... according to Emanual "A thing of beauty".  Its a guy thing!  And there is my guy inspecting that engine with reverence.  For my part so long as it works when we need it to and gives little to no trouble - I am good.  We resolved all of the installation and matching old with new issues. All that was involved were a few interior adaptations so the engine would slide into place and some machining of parts.  Now the installation can proceed.  But first we have to get the engine into the boat!

Emanual has a fancy truck with a lift to pick the engine up, then its just a matter of maneuvering it through the hatch.  Easy, right?  Well, actually Emanual and crew did make it look easy regardless of the tension involved.  I have a video but it is unfortunately too long to post here.  Getting the engine in the boat proved to be a bit easier than the actual installation.  That was a hard day - jiggling the engine this way and that for the alignment.  Lo and behold the engine started right up and we set a departure day... which would be the next day.  Now, one view would be to do a sea trial before heading out on a 6 day passage.  But... we likely would not discover issues on a 30 min to 1 hour sea trial.  So... we will depart for Lagos, Portugal (the mainland) and that will be our sea trial.  By the time we get to the end of the island we will have been out for 4 to 5 hours - that will give us enough time to discover issues and return if need be.  Or that is our reasoning anyway and the decision we have made.  So... that's it, time to leave Sao Miquel and finally finish our transatlantic crossing.