The Secret Life of Cats

Billy in our Arizona desert back yard. He was quite the hunter back then, slaying and dismembering mice and lizards, and giving the pack rat the boot from the Airstream.

With four days of steady rain, chilly temps, and Travis sick with can only be called the sleeping-coughing sickness, not much has been done to either boat. We did manage to order materials for the upcoming overhead project in the v-berth on Lucy Maru, and paint Mr. Perkins, Me Voy's engine.

Billy on a leash at the Grand Canyon during our exodus East. That is the one and only time he allowed us to walk him on a leash.

All this free time has lead me to wonder about cats, cats on boats in particular, and even more specific, our cat, Billy. Lately he has taken to doing laps around the top deck, galloping in circles from the back deck to the bow and back again, in the middle of the night, of course. What is he doing? I wonder as I wait for the dreaded splash.

Billy chillin on a roof top of our first B-more apartment

The splash must have been very quiet, for I slept right thru all of last night's secret goings-on. The only evidence something did happen was a thoroughly wet and embarassed Billy shivering in the salon. He wouldn't talk about it at all, and went to brood in the pilot house, leaving us baffled, wondering about his secret night life.

I've been working on a sailboat...

A full blown case of the deer-in-headlights condition

by Maggie

If you've read T's last post you'll notice he mentioned my deer in headlights look every time I come aboard Me Voy. Its true, right now Me Voy's interior is in a total state of chaos that I find unnerving. From little pieces of wood, to stainless screws, to pluming bits, to brushes, thinnners, and now engine degreasers, there is stuff crammed, jammed and strewn all over the place. You see T is a wonderful wonderful worker, who gets into the job whole heartedly and does great work. He's very meticulous, detailed, and dare I say a bit anal about everything he does. This combination works great, as most boat projects are very challenging both in terms of the contortions required and the mental energy that goes into figuring out how to do something. So its no wonder that the guy pays little attention to the tornado like zone that he leaves in his wake. He's usually exhausted, mentally and physically, and he's getting right back to it anyway. Right. Ok. I get it.

I've tried different methods of coping with this, the latest being just avoiding going over to Me Voy until we drop the engine in. That is the magical star date, after which we will do a major clean up with acetone, respirators, you know the works. So I've been patient. I've resisted the urge to go over and pick up and arrange the various tools, and materials, for although such behavior cures my own deer-in-head-lights condition, it only aggravates the same condition in T, who stands in the newly organized work space, staring blankly wondering where the vise grips are. So, I haven't interfered in T's progress as he put the engine mounts in, and began the engine clean up...until today.

Engine mounts awaiting bilge paint and of course the engine

Today was the first day, since bringing her down to Baltimore three months ago, that I worked on Me Voy. It was a simple job of painting the engine mounts, which really meant: sanding the epoxied mounts, filling previously drilled holes with epoxy and wood flour, and giving everything a nice coat of Bilgekote, while being crammed into a space the size of a chest freezer.

Mounts ready for the engine, with all insulation and lead sheeting in place

The deadly sweet smell of the bilge paint took me back to the time when we were only beginning dealing with the bilge rot. That was two years and fifty- three, five gallon buckets of rot ago. I'm not kidding either. I counted. As the rot-removing-machine- I kept good track of just how much rot there was.

Buckets of rot being removed from the engine hold, with the help of my trusty fein too. Perhaps we should have thrown in some tomato seeds and grew a garden instead? Hmmm.

You see Me Voy is a cold molded boat, which means she was built out of wood, then fiberglassed on the outside, and epoxied on the inside, making her more like a glass boat with a wooden core. The hull itself is a 1" thick wooden hull made of 3/8" fir strips on the outside, then a 3/16" mahagony layer , then another 3/16 mahogany layer then a final 3/8" mahogany strip layer on the inside. Then the fiberglass on the outside and epoxy on the inside. Mr. Holman and Mr. Pye, her designers, now known for their Oyster boats, designed her for circumnavigation at the request of a Mrs. E. Hatchett the owner of a boatyard in Spain. Everything about this boat is hard core, including her hull construction, which we are now intimately familiar with. She was glassed years later at a yard in Tilghman Md. where she was a charter vessel for a short period. But that was years ago, 13 years, and since then she was bought by Dusty, a boat carpenter (for a dollar) who took very fine care of her mast along with some keel work, but never saw the project thru. Enter us, three years ago, starry eyed, love at first sight, and so ignorant of the work that lay ahead.

This is the above engine hold with new wood and epoxy. The new wood is the orange colored strips. You can see where the rot stopped by the dark color of the planks on the right hand side. On the left hand side the new planks extended well up into the bilge. There was a leak that caused much rot on that side.

We did know that replacing the rot that disintegrated the first three layers of mahogany along the length of the bilge, was going to be a huge job, but even then we didn't think it was going to take two years - weekend warrior style. Looking back on those days, I'm amazed that we stuck to it. Hauling tools and wood up and down the ladder, driving to Oxford every weekend, man, we were determined. Still are, but now the light in that tunnel seems a bit closer. Once the engine plops in and purrs, we can start working on the interior, and who knows maybe we'll be moving in this summer. Maybe even sailing to FLA. this winter. Who cares really. I feel like we made it already just having her here.

SSSSS-PRING!

Chopper watches from the deck of L.M. as we lower boats and gear

The first weekend of Spring was full of sunshine and pleasant temps. Too nice to spend it working on boats, especially after the couple of weeks I had. You see, in my freelance art world, its feast or famine, and that means, on the one hand, we get a nice injection of cash flow during the feast time, and on the other I get my ass kicked working 12 hr. days. Anyway I'm enjoying the work, and right now this schedule complements my boat work schedule, so really everything is just bursting with yummy goodness.

Our new strap and lift system on the top deck of L.M.

Anyway we decided to take out the water toys and go for a ride. Along the way, one improvement to Lucy Maru was utilizing the third level and its davit for both the storing and lifting of our small boats. Why didn't we think of this before?

T using the davit to lower the canoe, while I steady the boat and take pics. How's the for walking and chewing gum at the same time?

With a few straps and bungees, I can now put my kayak into the water by myself, and paddle anytime I like. And, even though I am getting less preoccupied with the " I can do this by myself and don't need any help" mentality, which can be isolating and stressful, I like to be self-reliant.

That's another thing these boats are teaching me. Finding the balance between self and other, between teamwork and independence. So there you go, Jomamma: following the Kreative Blogger rules, here's something you might not know about me: I'm a hard-headed, do-it-yourself-usually-the-hard-way kind of person...in reform.

Me throwing a line that will steady the kayak while I lower it to the water.

Just wondering...

Has anyone out there figured out how to be in two places at one time?

Undercover Boatwork

Travis:

Well we have survived all that nature could throw at us all winter long. Now birds are back, singing their songs as constant reminders that it is time to get back to work. The task has been laid out clearly by the dozens of to do lists that have been compiled throughout the winter. The task is daunting. I am getting very anxious to sail Me Voy again so I have been working at an urgent pace. Today is Monday and I am glad to have been able to go to my regular job today so that I could get a break from working so hard. The pace at work is far from urgent, and most projects require focus in only one area to be repaired or up graded, rather than having something to do everywhere like we have on Me Voy. It is nice to have a break but I am looking foreword to this coming week-end so I can get back to it.

People at the marina are used to seeing us working outside on Lucy Maru. They would walk buy real slow and gauge our progress day by day. Now, evrything is hidden. It feels like working on some top secret project for NASA or something. I have even had one guy who lives at the marina ask me if we had been out of town all week-end. I kind of like the privacy but I am looking foreword to getting the tent off so I don't have to crawl on deck.

I am hoping, before the cover comes off in a few weeks, to get the cockpit looking the way it should. Finally finished. I had some thin teak I had left from re-sawing some boards for a cockpit coaming I did on another boat a while back, that I decided to veneer the bulkhead in. As with most boat projects, doing the job takes a bit of figuring out. How do I hold these very thin boards into place while the epoxy sets? After some head scratching I came up with the system pictured above, using a pile of scrap Mahogany, a few scrap pieces of Teak, and two strips of Ash screwed in between the seams holding all the veneer flush. The system worked great, and everything sanded and finished out great.
Here it is sanded with a coat of epoxy. I also cut in the "doggie hatch" which will be Chopper and Billy's primary entrance to get below deck, seen in the lower right of the above photo. There is still some engineering problems to work out in order to make that system work, but when it is all done, there will be a door that battens down from the inside with cabinetry that the boys can climb to get onto the deck. Should be kind of cool, if it works.

I also got the engine beds set into place this week-end. The engine beds are the heavy timbers that the engine is bolted down to. The originals were in great shape so we saved them and after a half day of modification with a handsaw and a dulling chisel, they fit perfectly. They are being held into the perfect position with a couple of pieces of fir and a sauce pan for gluing. More clamping improvisation.

This is a raft I made at work for a customer. I didn't mean to post this pic but here it is and I don't know how to delete it.

Mr Perkins awaiting installation. I am hoping to begin the work of cleaning up and going over our engine over the next few weeks. Now that the engine compartment is ready, the next step is to install the engine.

The place is a wreck. Maggie gets a deer in headlights look evrytime she comes aboard. She has decided to focus on LM. I feel a little overwhelmed but the thought of a fresh salty breeze filling those sails is more than enough to keep me going. I fantasize about a day, in the not too distant future, when I can kick back on deck in some tropical anchorage aboard this beautifully restored sailboat and do nothing all day long. Until then I'll keep plugging away.

Abundance

Why is T's mouth open and his eyes have that look of incredulity?

That's because he's holding $9000 dollars worth of Raymarine chartplotter and radar electronics that we got for free! FREE!

These units, although installed previously in some rich guy's boat, still smell like new plastic, and their owner's manuals don't have any, evidence of spilled drinks at all!

You see, another perk of T's job and a huge testament to the generosity of Diversified Marine , is the stuff we get handed down to us when a boat is being upgraded with new systems. In this case we scored a Raymarine RL80Crc Plus and a RL70C Plus, which is basically a radar and

chartplotter that is capable of integrating with our current Raymarine instruments. Its actually two separate displays that you hook up together so that you can see the chartplotter and radar both below deck and in the cockpit. Awesome! We also got a Raydome (radar) which is another $2000! That pretty much completes our must have electronics list for Me Voy! All in one swoop and three boxes, we got roughly $11,000 worth of electronics one evening. I'm blown away and so so grateful! Thank you so much Tom!

Also in the pic you may notice a thing getting knocked off of our to do list on L.M. , and that is the rotten shelf in the galley. This small project, once again proved the age old wisdom that there are no small projects on a boat, as I had to rip out half the bulkhead (wall) in the galley and a part of the hull the get rid of all the rot and replace it with new wood. After painting the new bulkhead, and varnishing the shelf, together T and I hung our new galley light, which, we're on a roll, T found next to a dumpster! People throw away such nice things. Is that only in America? When I lived in the van, Yumbum, (b.t -before travis) I would drive around looking for nice things in the trash. I lived in L.A. at the time, and by going to the rich neighborhoods, I found some really neat stuff, that I would later clean up and re-sell at flea markets. It was quite a successful venture, especially if I hit the jackpot and chanced upon a movie set that just finished shooting. Once I found a roll of the most beautiful upholstery fabric, a huge roll, brand new, that I sold for $250 to a fabric warehouse. That was quite a score as my expenses were low, spent mostly on gas which was about $1.15 p/g, and I ate at a organic farm that I hung around at. It was a lovely set up. Then I met T and there was no more room for storing stuff in the van. In fact with two people, Yumbum, became quite small, quite fast. But that's a story for another time and a coffee table book!

Back to the now. The shade T found is all glass, in perfect shape. It casts the most pleasing 12v light, making our galley booth feel very romanitc. Notice the chains that are preventing it from swinging as the boat rocks. That's what's so fun about working on a boat. All the details that one would never think about while on land, are critical to making something work on the water. Case in point was yesterday. With gusts of over 60 knots, Lucy Maru lurched and rocked in her slip, but our new light remained centered.

I wish I could say the same thing about us. We were, however, quite puckered as we listened to the howling wind, the groaning docklines, and the occasional screeching of the fenders as they held us off of the dock. I wonder how a night like that would be on a mooring bouy.

Yin Yang

As the mountains of dirty snow, slowly start to melt, B-more is likewise slowly getting back to normal. Schools, which were closed for several weeks have begun to re-open, and the masses are slowly being herded back to the grind.

It's been a debaucherous couple of weeks for us, as neither T nor I really wanted to do much, except enjoy this blizzard. That meant hot beverages, cold beverages, and lots of yummy food (still with no faces). Yes, our nest was quite steamy and smokey the past couple of weeks.

We did contemplate our current plans, and made several revisions. We have decided that instead of restoring Lucy Maru to her ultimate, we will now get her to a good stopping point this summer and pass on this dream to someone else. You see, with L.M. the possibilities are limitless. Her 55' are just waiting to welcome a bathtub (with jets of course), a washing machine, a luxurious master stateroom, an art studio, a rooftop garden, a workshop, a bar, not to mention an electrical charging system that would take this beauty off the grid and into a secluded anchorage somewhere, where her inhabitants could float in luxurious simplicity. Can you see it? Can you see her coasting down the ICW or the Great Lakes, gleaming, winking at the other boats, reveling in her own beauty, power, and agility? All these things are truly possible, given enough time and money. But are they really possible for us seeing as how we have two boats and a dream of balmy breezes? How long would we have to stay in Baltimore, in the US, to see this through? I, for one hope to watch the next presidential election from somewhere far far away. Perhaps we should rent out L.M. instead of selling? Yes, that was a scheme we tossed around, that is still on the table, but, its seems complicated. The simple answer is... cruel. Two boats is too much. One of them has to go.

Lucy Maru, a 55' Chris Craft Constellation being brought back from the

dead summer 2009,with hull replanking, recaulking, and deck replacement.

Floaters and Sinkers

Travis:

This morning has marked the end of Baltimore's epic blizzard of 2010. The record has now been set at 79.5inches of total snowfall this year. Last year we had only five inches total. Last night we had sustained winds at 30kts out of the north west, occasionally gusting over 50kts. The good thing is, the ice has broken up significantly around our boats despite the temperatures staying in the low teens. The bad news is, the wind has also blown much of the water out of the Chesapeake bay and now we have extremely low water. Quite a contrast from the flood just a couple of horrific weeks ago. I went to work, first thing this morning, freeing frozen dock lines on Me Voy to loosen the strain on the dock lines which had become tight as banjo strings at this new water level. It took a lot of kicking and picking to get the frozen knots loose.

All in all we are fairing well, however, sick of Winter and looking foreword to Spring.

Some are not so fortunate. Three sinkers so far. Only one is a wooden boat. "Freedom" pictured above, is a boat we considered buying before we found Me Voy.

One sailboat went down late last night.

Another victim is this Bayliner. I am told this boat sinks annually. The insurance pays to repair it and it is left to sink again. Sounds like a good scam to me.

The water is a good 5' below the dock. This makes getting on and off the boat even more dangerous than before. We are being extra careful. So far there have been no accidents at our marina this season. We are thankful for that.

We are also thankful that we weren't added to the list of over 30,000 MD residents who lost power due to the high winds last night. As a precaution, I had tried to get the generator going, but it wouldn't stay running. It seems the prolonged extreme cold has caused the diesel fuel to congeal in the lines clogging them and dashing any hope of a back up plan.

But for now we are still hunkered down by the electric heater trying to enjoy the remainder of our "vacation". I am actually starting to look forward to going back to work. Not that much though. I did manage to complete an item off of our to do list yesterday. I re-wired all of our bilge pumps and ran new 12volt wiring. We are now ready to fully convert from 32volt to 12volt. Today I think I will read a book while sipping hot cocoa.

SNOWMAGEDDON

Total snowfall 36". Sick of shoveling, sick of breaking ice around the boat.

Whiteout

Even Dock Meister Bill is stunned from this latest snow fall. At last measurement it has snowed 26" but notice it is still snowing...

We woke up this morning to the gurgling sounds of all bilge pumps running. That got us out of bed quick. Travis began shoveling as I looked for the source of the leak. The enormous weight of the snow pushed us 5" below the waterline, and one of our empty thru-hulls that was above the waterline normally, freed itself of its wooden plug. That meant water coming in fast under the sink. It was an easy enough fix, as the wooden plug just needed to be shoved in. Then back to shoveling. T estimated that given our deck area, there was probably 8 tons of snow weighing the boat down.
But all is well, no worries. We have power, fresh coffee, and lots of adrenaline.