It works!

Well folks, here's the really BIG news:
After two weeks of busted knuckles, scraped shins, bruised knees and long strings of salty language, we finally have Queequeg in reasonably good working order. She's by no means livable yet. There's a lot of cleaning to do and of course the floor still has to be rebuilt but...here's a list of what we know actually WORKS:
Radar
GPS
Refrigerator
Fresh water system (new pump)
Hot water heater
Bilge pump (new pump)
and...drum roll please...after replacing the alternator and the starter, changing the oil several times, bleeding the air out of the fuel system...are you ready? Yes! It's the ENGINE!
Thursday, I hooked up a garden hose to the water intake, gave the engine a few turns by hand to make sure everything moved, I perched myself in a safe spot in the engine "room" (I use the term loosely), told Bev to hit the starter and BOOM! A puff of gray smoke from the tail pipe and a startled yell from Bev and chug, chug, chug the engine started running!
Our one big worry in taking over this boat has been the engine. Remember, it's a 30 year old boat and it sat full of rain water for two years. It was always a big question if the engine would ever run again, but, thankfully, it not only runs, it even sound good. (If I'm any judge of diesel engine sounds.) It idles smoothly at the proper speed and revs up just as smoothly.
So now it's really starting to look like we have a boat.
As soon as we get back from our little excursion to Key West (see update on the Walkure blog) we will put in the work order for the yard to replace the cutlass bearing and paint the bottom. Then we will "splash" the boat and sail her down to Boot Key Harbor. We're still not sure exactly where she'll end up (in the harbor itself or down Sisters' Creek but at least it won't be 10 miles away as it is now. Our trips back and forth between here and Driftwood Boat Yard have involved either taxis or borrowed cars, so having the boat a dinghy ride away will be a relief.
Just to be sure, we tried the engine again on Friday and sure enough, it started right up.
When we get back from Key West and get ready to launch, I'll have some pictures. Up till now we've been too busy concentrating on getting the boat ready for launching. Now that some of the pressure is off, maybe we'll get some photos.
Look for an update in about two weeks.