January 10, 2011

Blame the Salty Monkey. He goaded me into it. He cajoled and shamed me into publicly revealing a finite list of tasks that once completed should allow me to cut the docklines. That list would also represent my goals for the first ten months of the new year, after which I hope to cut loose and head south to do the real work of restoring Circadian. Who knows, I might even get to do a little sailing along the way.

Here are the things that absolutely must be done:
1. Stop leaks in cabin and cockpit lockers
2. Replace cockpit lazarette panel cut out when old generator was removed
3. Install new cockpit hatch doors
4. Repair or replace helm hydraulic pump
5. Rebuild Groco head
6. Install shower sump w/ pump
7. Fabricate and install ceiling in doghouse
8. Mount VHF and radar display
9. Wire steaming light
10. Buy and install cabin heater
11. Buy and install autopilot
12. Buy and install AIS transceiver
13. Install stern chainplates for Jordan Series Drogue
14. Buy and install PortaPottie in aft cabin
15. Inspect sails, repair as needed
16. Tune rig
17. Clean out all unnecessary gear and supplies
18. Load needed gear and tools

Here are the things that I’d like to get done before leaving, but if they aren’t done, I’ll go anyway:
1. Stop leaks in doghouse
2. Replace rotted out plywood bulkheads in anchor locker and aft lazarette
3. Convert port v-berth to a double, get new mattress made
4. Install remaining new bronze ports
5. Build workbench into engine room
6. Install SSB
7. Install locker doors in forward head
8. Install water filtration system

9. Rig Hydrovane self-steering

While the above items are listed in loose priority order, some low priority items (like locker doors for the forward head) might get done sooner because they get bulky loose items out of the way and/or are fast, easy and make a big visible difference. In any case, everything on the essentials list has to be done before I can leave, so the order doesn’t matter much. My lawyer insists I include the following disclaimer: SUBJECT TO CHANGE WITHOUT NOTICE.

So what have I done for Circadian lately? Nothing major because I’ve been sidetracked by a trip to Des Moines (blame Carol!) and a bad cold. Nonetheless, I did get a few things done.

At home in the shop, I made some good progress repairing and restoring the doors for the lockers in the forward head. These were lying loose, broken and dirty when I bought Circadian. I’ve milled and replaced the hardwood trim to replace the missing pieces, removed old decals and hardware remnants, buffed out the formica, and sanded and varnished the trim. Five of the seven doors are done.I also cleaned up an old Whale Gusher 8 bilge pump to get it ready for a rebuild and refurbished an old water filtration system from a previous boat. That project consisted mostly of cleaning up the filter housings and wire brushing, priming, and painting the rusty old mounting bracket.

In odd spare moments I was able to finish varnishing and rubbing out the thin strip of jatoba from which I cut thin bungs to finish off the wood mast post cover I had fabricated and installed earlier. Over the weekend I was able to get to the boat to glue them in place. I stuffed some scraps of soft paper into the bung holes first so that the bungs wouldn’t slip too far into the holes.

That proved unnecessary as the bungs were such a tight fit that I had to tap them into place (ever so gingerly) with a rawhide mallet. Two out of the ten were bad fits, so I just broke them out and redid them. (I had cut 15 bungs for the 10 holes knowing full well I’d likely drop and lose some and/or screw up the installation somehow.) Finishing off those little trim details really makes a big difference in how nice things look.

From outside the cabin, I worked some more butyl into the gap between the cabin side and the flange of the ABI port I had installed earlier, so it’s now ready for the redundant 3M 4000 seal whenever I have more ports ready for that final step. While onboard, I also did a New Year’s ritual cleaning out of the cabin so that it looked more like a boat and less like a post-earthquake workshop, and I mounted my little Magma charcoal grill on a stern stanchion.

Not a lot of progress, but I did manage to make another good gear score while at the harbor. Scott was sawing up another derelict old sailboat and I asked about the two primary winches on her. They looked like they were in decent shape and weren’t frozen. Turned out they were heavy two speed Barients (#22). Scott practically gave them to me at $100 for the pair. They’ll be great sheet winches for my staysail. I even found a good location for mounting them. I’ll just need to be VERY careful not to lose or break any parts when I tear them down to service them; Barient is long out of business and parts can be difficult or impossible to find. Scott also gave me a relatively flat hunk of the fiberglass hull that I can use to make backing plates and to repair the leaking cockpit lockers.

Carol is coming up this coming weekend so we can properly ring in the new year (I was sick New Year’s eve), so don’t expect big progress on Circadian. I hope to make up for it the following weekend because it will be a three-day weekend thanks to the MLK holiday. But time has definitely been steadily compressing. We’ll see….