As Katie said below, there are still problems with the boat, but at least it's home...or within sight of home.
The tow home was cold and exciting, probably a lot more work keeping our boat lined up behind the tow vessel than just steering it in a reasonably straight line would have been. Good practice, though, and good exercise. And we do now have power and water and urinal facilities.
The engine is all kinds of clustered, thanks to our former contractor who will remain nameless (I'll just call him Harry Lenderson). It ran and idled fine after a bit of work bleeding the lines two weeks ago. Then...Harry stripped the threads in the primary filter housing while "tuning" it, so we had to replace that. At his suggestion, I disassembled, cleaned, and reassembled the secondary filter; now it leaks air. And Harry then removed a hardline in order to bypass said secondary...and took it with him; it's gone. He also broke the fuel pump by continually futzing with it; that piece is on order, too. So the engine can't run right now.
When it does run, it bogs down and stalls in forward gear...apparently because the zinc collar Harry installed is too large and binds up the shaft in one direction. So we get to pay a diver to remove it, then a machine shop to grind it down (though I could likely do it myself if I had access to a bench grinder), then a diver again to put it back on and hope it fixes the problem. Then we can swing about to our actual home slip and throw a welcome mat on the dock.
Despite all that, I'm very happy. I sleep very well on the boat, and I smile a lot more. All these problems shall pass...to be replaced, of course, with new ones, but hey! C'est la vie afloat, right? It's all good.
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