Thursday, May 12, 2011

The Horizon clan is officially living aboard.

As of Sunday, the human and feline components of the Horizon clan are now united aboard. Like our attempt a week before, the move was not without tribulations.  It involved variously: a not too comfortable mid-afternoon nap wearing a long sleeve jacket and kitchen gloves (to mitigate the blood loss problem of the prior week), getting a small wire mesh dog crate/cage, and scattering lots of towels and blankets around the house to be able to swoop Ollie up easily wherever he decided to perch.

In the end the nap didn't help draw him out from hiding and the towels were not needed.  After the prior weekend, Ollie had come to associate being drugged with impending skinning so to get him to appear at all we had to leave him alert.  We set up the cage in the living room and randomly tossed cat treats into it.  Ollie, too savvy to use the cage door, would reach a paw through the bars to snatch up treats Rose missed.  But eventually there was one he couldn't quite reach and as he slid in to get it Cate managed to latch the cage door behind him.  Some quick sprays of feline pheromone spray and his yowls subsided.  We quickly scooped up Rose and our gear and started them off to their new home.

Within minutes of arrival Rose was carefully exploring every inch of her new home.  Ollie played osterich with his face buried but his body in plain view for the rest of that day.  The last couple nights though they have used the hall as a drag strip so we think they are getting acclimated although Ollie does still burrow behind salon cushions whenever there is an odd sound.  Also, just like Ginger before, they love watching the marina life beyond the portholes at bed level in the stateroom.

Monday, May 2, 2011

Cat Scratch Fever?

We are really close to the final move onto Horizon.  This weekend we gathered together most all our clothes and sundry from condo and house, then went to corral the cats for the trip to their new home.  Ollie has never lost his feral switch so on Saturday morning we dosed him with Quiet Moments calming aid for cats.  An hour later he was about as relaxed as I have ever seen him so I picked him up and had him within inches of the carrier before he realized what was happening and went into "they are skinning me" mode.  He dug in his claws and spurted out then hid for the rest of the weekend.  I expect my wounds will heal in a few weeks :(

We went ahead and continued to spend our nights on Horizon but stop at the house to visit the feline part of our family at least once a day.  Rosie, always open to anything, plays around and jumps in and out of the carriers and generally shows us she would rather be around her humans 24/7.  But even today, 2 days after his scare, Ollie ran and hid when he heard my voice and no amount of coaxing lured him out.  We thought about just bringing Rosie with us until we can figure out what to do with Ollie but they have been together since kitten-hood and we worry what he would do if left for periods with no companionship.  For now we will try to figure out how to get them both to their new home.

On another front, we decided the original propane stove with no automatic thermocouple gas shut-off was just too much of a safety risk so we ordered a new Force 10 3-burner stove.  We did finally get that mounted, but not without a great deal of contemplation and head scratching.  Of course everyone knows that no boat project is ever simple.  We first found that try as we might, the new stove just would not fit through the companionway to the galley and main salon.  And, while it would fit through the aft companionway, the walk-thru to the main salon was too narrow.  After hours of careful measuring and judicial dismantling I found we could get it into the main salon through the walk-thru if we:

1. Took off some teak molding
2. Removed the door to the aft stateroom
3. Removed the cover of the electrical panel
4. Removed the door to the upright refrigerator
5. Removed all unwelded/pop riveted pieces from the new stove

After all that, Eoin and I managed to get it into the main salon for reassembly.  Of course the new stove had different mounting locations from the old stove so the mounts were moved to where we thought they should be, but when we tried to drop the stove into the mounts it would not seat - the gimbal pins on the new stove were slightly larger than the old ones.  Measured some more and used the mounting plates that came with the new stove and viola, it was mounted!  The next morning Cate fixed a fantastic biscuits and SOS breakfast on it.  We still have to do some woodwork on the hinged cabinet cover to let the new stove gimbal fully but for now it is very useable and nicely shiny.