Cruising ~ The Cat’s
Meow Style ~ June - July,
2005
Still in La Paz……
Well…….. we are STILL in La Paz, Baja California
Sur, Mx. We thought that by now we
would surely be enjoying the cruising life once again, in the Sea of Cortez,
but alas….. we are still here. La Paz
is a fine place to be when one needs to do major boat work, but, we both get
quite tired of working on the boat and we are quite ready to be somewhere else!
However, here we are…..
So, here is the latest on
what we have been doing recently:
One of the highlights of the
recent past was our celebration on May 24th of the saving and
floating of The Cat’s Meow. That was the one-year anniversary of the
early-morning raising of our boat, thanks to the unbelievable work and tenacity
of so many people. Martin and Robin announced on the local VHF radio net, and
sent emails to many friends and family alerting all to the date, and asked
everyone to join them on the evening of the 24th to celebrate such a
wonderful event and demonstration of friendship and hope. Here in La Paz
approximately 30 people came by The Cat’s Meow to celebrate with us. Many we
knew, some had been there for the event, and a few had only heard or read about
the adventures of The Cat’s Meow and wanted to see her floating. We received
many emails from friends, stretched from Sausalito, CA to Panama and Florida,
who also joined us on the 24th, celebrating our good fortune and the
camaraderie between so many people. During that evening’s celebration, we had
The Cat’s Meow Rescue slideshow running on the computer ~ tears were flowing,
and cheers, too. It was fun and a great
way to remember. Too bad Robin forgot
to take any photos of the people celebrating with us here on TCM.
Another highlight was the
visit from Martin’s daughter, Debbie and her son Jake, at the end of May. We
had hoped to be able to take them out to the islands on TCM, but it was not to
be so. In fact, Deb and Jake slept on a neighbor’s nearby boat, since TCM’s
guest quarters were not ready. However, during the week they were here, we did
do a lot of exploring, introduced them to some “real” Mexican foods, got in
some good beach time, etc.
Kayaking at Balandra, near La Paz Jake & Deb snorkeling at Tecalote
Sailing
away on Winsome
When we were able to get
Jake away from his movies and DVD player, we got in some kayaking &
snorkeling, they went on a SCUBA dive trip at the nearby islands, with Fun Baja,
and we took a sail onboard our friend’s boat, Winsome. Both Deb and her son had
a good time, and so did we!
Immediately after Deb and
Jake left for California, Martin and Robin attended a dinner/fundraising event
at a local German restaurant. One of our
cruising friends, Jaye of the vessel Winsome, was a member of the wind quintet
that played a variety of music, from Brahms to Creedance Clearwater! This
evening’s dinner and concert benefited the Fundacion Para Los Ninos, which
provides all types of assistance to the poorest children of the area. It was
great to get together with many cruising friends, and to see and hear Jaye play
her flute, while doing a good deed as well.
Benefit concert Jaye playing her flute
Roberta, whom Robin met
through another friend, Pat, visited here in La Paz for a few weeks. The three
amigas got together for coffees, lunches, and wandering about the city. It is always fun for Robin
to take some time off from working on the boat to have fun with her
girlfriends!
Roberta, Pat, and Robin enjoying La Paz
One day while working her
way around the aisles at the local supermarket, Robin was soooo surprised to
see a long-time acquaintance from the days at the Hurricane Gulch YC back in
San Pedro ~ Linda and her husband Frank, of the SV Interlude, were here in La
Paz, which was a big surprise to us since we thought they had headed off to the South Seas in April!! Well, after some
minor health problems, Linda and Frank had returned to the mainland, took care
of the health issues, and decided it was time for them to spend some time in
the Sea of Cortez. They spent an evening with us on TCM, which gave us a chance
to catch-up on all the goings-on, and to share some of our local knowledge
about the different places to go in the Sea. Hopefully, The Cat’s Meow and
Interlude will be able to share some anchorages together later this season.
Yes, we have been working
diligently on the restoration of our beloved home and boat, The Cat’s Meow. She
really IS The Cat’s Meow!! It truly gives us pause to look back at what
our boat looked like one year ago, and to see how much she has improved, in
many ways, since then. Here are some
updates on the interior work:
Galley update View from galley toward salon, starboard side
Martin on the new salon cushions
Martin and Robin, Toes and
Squeak, all piled into the borrowed Dodge truck on about June 24th,
for another trip to the States. We had lots to do, but wanted to return to the
boat ASAP, in order to continue getting her ready for leaving the dock and
doing some cruising. Our first order of business was to meet daughter Debbie
and her husband Tom, in the LA area. There, we returned their truck to them,
and purchased the Aerostar van they had driven down to meet us. While the truck
was marvelous to have during our work on TCM, the van will be more comfortable
to us for traveling, and generally driving around while we are here in Mexico.
At the present time, we expect to leave the van somewhere in Arizona when we
finally do head south of Mexico, and we plan to use it for traveling in the
States. Anyway, after the vehicle trade, Martin and Robin continued to stay at
he home of good friends, Dianne & Hans, located at Rancho Palos Verdes.
When they returned from a weekend at Catalina Island, we were there to greet
them!
Enjoying
Hans & Dianne’s deck in RPV
Next we drove to Las Vegas,
where we stayed at the “resort” home of Barbara & Dwight, also former
Hurricane Gulch buddies. We took care of the vehicle registration, driver’s
license renewal, etc. Barb and Dwight have a very nice home, complete with
pool….which Robin enjoyed…. and they have decided to name and decorate each of
their guestrooms in a style of one of the large “strip” hotels. The room we
stayed in is the “Ceasar Room”, complete with a round bed that came from the
Ceasar Hotel!!
The
“Ceasar”” Room
Our next stop was in
Cottonwood, AZ, where we visited Janice and Ernie. Janice and Robin worked
together for 10 years in the Special Services office of the local elementary
school district in Cottownwood, and it is ALWAYS great to see her and Ernie.
Squeak and Toes were able to stay in the guestroom, and made themselves quite
at home.
From Cottonwood, we drove
the short distance to Prescott, and picked-up the furniture that had been
waiting for us at the home of friend Bill’s brother….Bill and Stephanie of the
SV Summerwind. Since our wonderful old rattan furniture had not survived the
sinking of TCM, it was fantastic that Stephanie had found this rattan furniture
in Prescott (of all places!) while she and Bill were living there last year.
So, we loaded the van to the rafters with the goods, and took off for
Phoenix. Another good friend, another
Diane, has another beautiful home which we were able to stay in, AND, she
cat-sat our two felines, in her home, while we flew off to Oregon for a three
day visit!!
One of the most important
reasons for this Stateside trip was to attend the Hardy family reunion &
birthday celebration for Martin’s mom, Laura. She is in her 90th
year, and still going strong! The Winston, Oregon property of Jim & Ginny,
Martin’s younger brother & wife, was a purrrfect location for this event.
At least 50 people had plenty of room to roam, a creek & raft for the kids,
lawn swings for the non-kids, and soooo much food that Ginny could have fed all
of Winston!! All three of Martin’s kids attended + some of his grandkids. The
weather was purrrfect, too, and a wonderful time was had by ALL. Thanks a
trillion to Ginny and Jim for their hard work and energy to put this
celebration together! While we are on the subject of Jim ~
take a look at his Hot Wheel room, and this is only a part of it:
Mom Hardy with her 3 sons and their wives Horseshoes, again, during the reunion
The Martin Hardy family photo Jim’s Hot Car room…… it’s HOT!
The Hardy reunion was held
on July 3rd, and naturally July 4th followed, with the
downtown Riddle OR parade! Ooooohhh my.
Small town USA, in red-white-and-blue!!
It was really fun to see the parade, and to find granddaughter Brianna
with her mom, Robin, after the parade at the festival that followed.
Riddle, Oregon 4th of July
Parade
Brianna
& mom Robin at the Festival
It was back to Phoenix,
where Diane, Martin and Robin dined with Pamela and Mack, and cooled off in the
pool (it was about 112 degrees, daytime).
Dining with friends in Phoenix
Now it was time to head
west, toward home, with a stop in Chula Vista (near San Diego), at the home of
Kathleen & Ron. Ron was already back in La Paz, working on his boat, but we
had a couple nights to spend with Kathleen as we did our last-minute
shopping ~ we had been shopping everywhere we went, all along! ~
and repacked the van for the third or fourth time…..
At last, on July 13th,
we crossed the border back into Mexico, headed for La Paz. We had a tire blow
out at the end of the first day of driving down the Baja, but we were able to
limp another mile or so to a place where we knew there would be a place to get
a tire, of some kind, and we did. So, we made it to Guerrero Negro before dark,
bought a new tire the next day, and returned home about dusk on the 14th.
It is ALWAYS soooo gooood to return to our boat, and to Mexico. While it is
hott down here, it has not been unbearable, and the evenings are still cooling
off to the low 70s.
After two days of unloading
and stowing away all the goodies we brought with us, we are now “back at it”,
working on getting the boat ready to pull away from the dock. Since we now have furniture that is to live
in the lanai room, Robin has been spending her days working on cleaning out
that area (refer to former photo of our lanai room….), and Martin has been
working hard on the “monster exhaust” system…….
Life is good. We are happy.
The Cat’s Meow is terrific. The cats are fat and happy. We are looking forward
to being back “out there”.
Please come back to visit us
at Cruising ~ The Cat’s Meow
Style!