A New To-do List

The recent Seattle Times story about Mistral took me only a few hours to write, the words just flying off my fingers. But in retrospect, it really took about 17 months, the time I had spent as a main character in the Mistral narrative. I paused recently to catalog what I got done. Here's the list:

• Mast scraped and varnished
• Mast step drain hole drilled
• Head overhauled (but not used and currently not connected)
• Toilet seat reglued and varnished
• Portapotty installed
• Sink faucet replaced
• Full cover stitched, patched and cleaned
• hatch doors stripped and varnished
• Hand rails, hatch, cap rail and house varnished
• Carburetor overhauled; parts replaced from carb kit
• Engine coil replaced
• Zinc changed
• Bottom paint, summer ‘06
• Leak in bow corked and caulked
• Bottom paint
• Topsides paint
• Deck repainted and non-skidded
• Pelican hooks installed on lifelines
• Mast boot replaced with both tape and new Sunbrella
• Mold washed from ceiling
• Packing gland restuffed with Teflon
• Spinnaker topping lift replaced
• Recast and replaced bronze thumb screws on shifter plate and spinnaker sheet blocks
  

Remaining needs:

• Shore up binocular box
• Replace autolift box
• Fix leak around exhaust manifold, probably in gasket
• Chase leak near starboard portlight in forepeak
• Replace cracked veneer in starboard bulkhead
• Replace fuel tanks and lines or cut holes and hand clean
• Refurbish cockpit
• Countersink, screw and bung assorted screw holes in cockpit teak
• Overhaul alcohol stove
• Strip and varnish spinnaker pole
• Fix whisker pole
• Check prop shaft alignment
• Change oil and transmission fluid
• Overhaul manual bilge pump
• Chase further leaking from bow, with trickle visible in bilge
• Paint top of house
• Check top of mast for chafing from halyards; affix small chafing blocks
• Monitor jib winches
• Patch tear on starboard side of cover