Well, after 2 days of intensive instruction and hands on practical experience I can now strip a diesel engine down to the bare essentials including removing the injectors and injector pump. It was a great course presented by Bob Smith of American Diesel!!
Held in the luxury of a conference room in the Hyatt Hotel in Baltimore, we (17 students) proceeded to strip the engine down bit by bit. Learned to torque the engine bolts, change the filters, set the timing and valve clearances and “bleed” the system to remove air bubbles.
Then we wheeled this huge monstrous engine out of the hotel into the loading bay, fuelled her up, attached water for cooling and surprise, surprise, she started on the first press of the started. We were all rightly proud of ourselves. Hey, I even received a certificate:) 
Of course, all this activity didn’t leave much time to even get near Amanzi!!
Finally met with Hugh and John last night and spent a long time going over all the systems and operations. Much to take in but Hugh did a great job of introducing me to almost every nook and cranny of Amanzi as well as answering all my questions. Great Stuff, thanks Hugh and John.
Even got to starting and running the generator and both motors – what sweet purring low rumbles emanated from the exhausts
We only got to bed after midnight after the orientation and then a delightful dinner as Mary has already mentioned.
Today, we went out shopping for “stuff” that we want on Amanzi to personalise her and then spent the afternoon starting to move on board (still in the hotel though) and sort things out the way we want them.
Then also met Trey, the listing broker who sold us the boat and Andy, our engineer who has been attending to a few small issues and alteration I have requested.
Of course, as always in boating, nothing is ever as simple as it at first appears!! andy is installing new throttle controls for me and it appears that another part – a selector switch – is needed to make the throttles work correctly. Another one for the learning curve
Now, once again it’s midnight and time to say cheers till next time.
