The Mexican Way   A guest commentary by Alan

When we purchased our boat, it was known that one engine was not working, but the extent of the damage was not known. Ron, the seller, was responsible for repair and we thought a mechanic in Tucson would do the work. However they are a 7 hour drive away, don't come down here often, and said we needed a fork lift to remove the engine from the boat, and there isn't one here. So after we were here about a week, Ron gave permission to use a local mechanic, Mario & Sons. The day after giving the o k, they arrived and started removing parts.

I've got to say here, I didn't envy them in the least! It's hot here, and the engine room has little ventilation, and frankly it stinks like a diesel normally does. Over several hours lots of old parts came into the cockpit, including a fresh water pump that was missing important metal to keep the water in, and a head that had a lot of carbon showing, and at least one damaged fuel injector. At this point, with the head off, it could be seen that the rings of one piston badly scored the cylinder wall, which meant the block needed to be removed.

The next day, after a few hours of their continued work, I left the boat for a bit (Caroline was in a building doing sewing) and upon return, saw three strong guys hauling on a rope, lifting the block out of the engine room! Then they hoisted it over the rail and lowered it by hand to the ground, some 10' below! Mario, an older man, just watched, and said to me: "We do et da Mexican way." Forklift, block & tackle? No way, just yank it out, lower it to the ground then lift into the back of the car and drive off with it.

How much this engine weighs, I don't actually know, but it took three strong backs to lift it. When Mario saw I didn't get a photo of putting it in the car, he said "take it out so the Gringo can get a picture..." They all just laughed.

The next day, Mario's son & grandson arrived to clean the almost empty engine room. Three hours later it was SO clean, Caroline & I joked about having a new dining room! From these combined experiences, the next day we asked Mario to do his magic on the port engine, so we'd be starting off with two equally good power plants. Last week he did just that, and found the fresh water pump in about the same condition (awful) but not much else wrong.

The replacement parts have been ordered from L.A. (will arrive in two weeks) and the block & head are at the machine shop to be bored and valves ground. It's going to be so great to start off our cruising days knowing we have two strong engines to move us, when the winds don't blow.