the brandy new, shiny motor - still in the truck

SAILING
none

WEATHER
March howled in with some more extremely windy days which blew some things off our deck; a plastic container and Hilo's bed-crazy! As cooler as it is I know it is still colder up north in the states, funny to talk to relatives that are having blizzards while I stood outside in shorts and t-shirt talking to them on the payphone. When the winds stop it is actually pretty warm and hot in the work yard. Every once in a while you get a whiff of what smells like honeysuckle to me though I know form last year that it is really orange blossom - yummy.

BAY WATCH
A lot of other people saw whales this month but we were busy with the engine replacement.

PROJECTS
The engine replacement went like this:
While being stranded on the boat (not being able to go sailing) Scott spent countless hours in shore organizing the engine delivery while I did a bunch of woodwork: cetoled the wood on deck using some glossy kind that makes it look like varnish - I just hope it lasts for at least 6 months, more sewing projects, taxes, mail for Scott to bring up to the states, hotel rooms for Scott, helped Scott order other boat parts and worked on the summer picture project besides the usual laundry, cleaning, hauling water and food shopping.
A week before we were scheduled to get hauled out of the water Scott disconnected all the hoses, then the electrical wires which was eventful since we didn't know what to do with the ground wire (our entire system is grounded through the engine) to keep our electricity on and then we discovered there is a positive wire too that we REALLY didn't know what to do with - so we had no electricity for the last 2 days on the water - which wasn't bad except the toilet started to stink from lack of the ventilation fan.
We hoisted the engine up and out of the engine room through the cockpit floor (that comes up) using 2 come-alongs and the mainsail boom - alittle exciting. The engine looks a lot bigger when your not just looking at the top of it in the engine room we discovered. We had to time it right too to avoid a 400 lb metal engine swinging around like a pendulum from the boat moving from the pangas wakes (in the early morning) and all the other boat's wakes and the gustier winds (in the afternoon). Then Scott shorted out the inverter (a $50 - 400 amp fuse) that shut off the monitor (to the $1,500 inverter), which made us think we messed up our entire electrical system, for a day, until we decided to try changing the fuse that solved the problem. Needless to say Cheryl had a couple of emotional meltdowns.
The marina office took so long (1 &1/2 hours late while the tide was receding) to come and tow us in when we took Raven out of the water that I managed to calm down about the whole process and it all went fairly smoothly. Our 1st couple of days in the yard were exhausting; moving into the hotel, getting the engine off the boat and into the truck, scheduling work and finding new things to order like the manual bilge pump that broke and wondering about a whole new fuel filter system while trying to get the engine room cleaned and painted - will it all ever be done?! Scott didn't leave right away for Phoenix as planned since not all the parts arrived at one time - good thing too since we had plenty to do to prepare for the new engine.
I have to admit it was nice to be able to walk everyday again (and have our own private shower, running hot water to wash dishes and a 'larger' kitchen at the hotel) and Raven was put next to friends Kirt, Judy and David in the yard. On the other side of us was another Westsail 32 so it was fun to look at the differences on the same type boat. 2 boats down was a man from Taos (so I got to chat about Taos) and later Randy and Tanja. We are back at the hotel we lived at for the very 1st 4 months of working on Raven (3 years ago) and back in the work yard so we have come full circle and are hoping that is what San Carlos wants from us before it lets us go....
Then we started removing the batteries, cleaning the 'Valdez oil slick' out of the engine room, painting the engine room, drilling the new holes, cleaning up the electrical panel wiring, arranging for someone to make us shelves for the batteries, getting the yard to fix the damage they did to our depth sounder transducer, Scott got the engine - 9 hour drive back to Phoenix, reattaching all the electrical wires, started the 12 coats of varnish on the new folding screen and the additional wood slats (their nautical name is the ceilings), etc. Yes it is taking longer than hoped but Omar, our mechanic is on the job now so we got to relax a bit. There were the usual minor stresses: the new prop not fitting right and some holes not drilled in the right place but everything is manageable. Wish us luck.

SOCIAL SCENE
Elka & Uwe, sv Aurtoris, left for Hawaii (starting their South Pacific cruise).
Poki & Christian, sv Irie, left for La Paz (also starting their South Pacific cruise).
John of sv Magus helped us get Raven towed in to the dock and out of the water then he moved his boat over to our mooring so he doesn't have to worry about dragging anchor for a week or so.
Finch of sv Loralai's EPIRB went off somewhere near the Fuji islands and we later discovered it was 'only' because of an injury - hope his crew member will be OK, glad the boat's OK.

We met some fun & very nice people at the hotel: one couple from Canada who were buying a sail boat (had dinner with them a couple of times), a man from AZ who was here fishing with a friend & a British couple who had a B&B in Cape Town South Africa.

I decided to take an art class to cheer me up (from being back in the work yard); we made cards in with a Mexican technique - some engraved tin looking kind - very pretty, then I went to a class on Angles with Lorena - nice to met some like minded people.

The 1st weekend at the hotel was a Mexican holiday so town was packed especially with younger people walking around in bathing suits and filling up the hotel - a sort of Spring break - I remember those days.

We met a neat couple my age from California, Randy & Tanja, who were looking to buy a larger boat (they looked at a Westsail). We hung out a bunch and it turns out Tanja and I have a lot in common- very fun!

HILO
We got a small scare about taking Hilo to the South Pacific (some day): some fellow sailors emailed and said they couldn't take their cat but it was because they didn't have all the rabies vaccines and identification microchips implanted - Hilo has all that so he is ready!

Hilo seemed to have fun hanging out in the hotel's windows at night watching all the 'after dark stray cat' activity and bounding from window to window during the day.