Always something

It's always something. Put the rebuilt starter back on only to find that they reversed one of the connectors and there is no way to connect it. Took off the starter and rewired the connector then reinstalled the starter. Didn't work at all. Reconnected the wires (I had forgotten one) and it fired up the engine right away. While the engine was running and I was doing my happy dance, I noticed the engine room was full of smoke. OH #$%#! Cleared out the smoke and fired it up again while watching it. Turns out the exhaust hose had sprung a leak and was shooting water all over the engine producing steam. Luckily the hose was long enough to reconnect after cutting off the bad part. If course one of the hose clamps broke. Good thing I keep spares. Reattached and seems to be working. All in only 4 hours.
We also started another blog for the longer descriptions of the trips:
http//www.sailblogs.com/member/catamaranharmony/