Cruising ~ The Cat’s Meow Style ~ April &
May, 2007
YAAHOOO!!!
The continuing saga of The
Cat’s Meow engine……. It goes on and on
and on, but the Good News now is that it is getting DUN. This has been
going on tooooo long, but when all is completed, we will have essentially, a
new engine. Or, at least, almost. Along with the engine repair, Martin just
couldn’t help also changing and/or cleaning-up lots of other things in the
engine room: the watermaker, the “house” water system, alternators, an engine-driven
generator, the hydraulics…… the list goes on and on. Robin thinks he has moved
into the engine room for good. He sometimes comes up for air. And food. Martin
is and should be very proud of this accomplishment. Getting this engine back
together, piece by piece (and believe us, engine pieces were scattered from
literally the bow to the stern!), is a big deal. And…. IT RUNS!!! Yaahooo!! On or about May 10th,
the ole girl was fired-up, and she ran quieter than she had before. You could
almost see TCM smiling again!! Of course, there were still things to fix and
tweak, but the engine was functional again, after almost one long year.
Whew!!!
Injectors had to be
repaired, which took about three weeks including the time to order and receive
the parts from the States. Then, more adjustments, more things to add and more
small repairs to make. The engine needs to be run for about 40 hours before the
valves will need to be torqued again. Engine oil had to be changed. The shaft
and the engine have to be aligned, and re-aligned. It still is not completely
done, but soooo much closer. We figure our old boat will run much more
efficiently, as well, after all this work. GOOD. Here are some more engine photos
for you engine buffs:
Martin putting torque to the valves The International Harvester getting assembled, piece by piece
Believe it or not, other
things do go on here on TCM as well as the engine re-fit.
Easter Sunday crept up on
us, and then there it was. Dave and Carolyn from Que Tal? And Dennis and Susan
from Two Can Play joined us on The Cat’s Meow for a delicious dinner and a nice
relaxing afternoon.
Easter Sunday with good buddies on
TCM 
Some of the other folks on
the dock had their own party, as well, with pot-luck goodies.
An Easter Sunday dock party just
outside our door
Mid-April, the La Paz
cruising community puts on a fun-filled three-day activity called Bay Fest.
Club Cruceros is the leading organization, and many volunteers come forward to
put on different types of seminars, activities, music, etc. Painting and beading classes, tug-o’-war on
the beach, potlucks, a chili cook-off, lunches provided by some local
neighborhoods, and music and dancing were all enjoyed by the cruising set.
Watercolor
classes, led by our good friend Pat (2nd from right) Jeff (the blonde) and the other
tug o’ war cheerleaders The Baja South band, getting’ us
in the groove
While Martin was living in
the engine room, Robin was finally able to tackle the top-deck project:
prepping the deck and painting it with the non-skid paint. Robin had planned to
get this job completed during the winter months, but it was so very windy and
cold, quite a lot cooler and windier than in earlier winters. It was not
possible to do the work in the winter, so she got busy before the heat of
summer started. The top deck (flying bridge) had never had good non-skid on it,
since before we bought TCM in 1998. In fact, Robin was somewhat embarrassed
when she saw some photos of the boat sitting at quite an angle on the rock
before TCM was sunk and saved….the top deck mess was quite apparent. But hey,
we decided not to tip the boat up again just to make a comparison photo for
this update!!! The project of the deck took three months to complete, almost
the same amount of time as the engine repair. The deck was in terrible shape,
and had to be filled and faired (fill, sand, fill, sand, fill, sand…..) a LOT.
Finally, as you can see, the deck on the flying bridge is done, safe, and
beeuuuteeful!! We even had a little “dance floor opening night” with a few
friends, to christen the deck, with home-made pizzas.
Robin repairing, prepping the flying bridge deck The finished product The celebration for another project completed on TCM
During this time, Robin also
was busy with other repair & painting projects on the exterior of the boat.
Part of the time she was working on scaffolding that Martin had put up for
her.
Robin on
her scaffolding, painting the roof and the upper side of the boat
May 24th will
always be a special day in our hearts. That was the day that The Cat’s Meow was
raised and saved, in 2004. We had a small celebration this year again, with
friends on the dock and some others who “were there”. After a short dock party,
we visited a local restaurant for some good eats, and many toasts to the boat
and to the people who worked so hard to save her.
Celebrating 3 years after the
saving of TCM, with Martin’s BIG one….torque wrench, that is….
Still, most of our time has
been spent thinking about, working on, fixing, ordering parts for, and
repairing the engine.
Lest you might think that
all is either work or eating here on TCM, let us assure you it is not. There
are beautiful sunsets to admire, quiet waters to gaze upon, friends to see and
to chat with, and to fill the creative part of her personality (and to try to
remail sane, as well), Robin makes jewelry, small purses, and some shadowboxes.
Some of these items are made as gifts, many are sold at the local cruiser
swapmeets. Here are some examples of her work:
Little purses… …jewelry….. …and shadowboxes.
As June approaches, we are
anxious to get on the water again, meet up with our friends at the island
anchorages, get into the water ourselves with kayaks and scuba tanks. Robin’s
cousin, Sharla, is arriving mid-June to spend some time on the boat. We are
both looking forward to that visit, and hopefully she will be able to explain
what we all see along the Baja coast and in the Sea of Cortez islands – Sharla
was a geology major, and we can’t wait to hear what she might have to say about
what we see in the Sea!!
As usual, thank you for visiting us here, and please come back to see what we come up with next, Cruising ~ The Cat’s Meow Style.