ZEN AND THE ART OF BOATERPSYCHO MAINTENANCE

The wind shortened my surf session this morning, so I got to work on my 'To Do Before Nicole and Katie Arrive List":

--Measure the extra piece of wire I have.too short. Email West Marine Santa Barbara to add 48' feet of 5/16ths stainless wire to my list. Look for my spare Norseman fittings.hmmm.not in the spare parts box?.nor under the forward bunk with the random hardware?.not in the port drawers either?.I KNOW I saw them recently?! Nope, not in the back locker of my dresser. Nor with the files and chisels.ugh. Okay, cant find them.move on.What else is on the list?
--Oil change.did that already.
--Clean the hull
--Fix the salt water foot pump
--Change the zinc on the prop
--Fix the cockpit cover board
--Overhaul the bilge pumps.Okay, bilge pumps.that's critical.
Pull off the stairs, lift up the floorboard, haul out the 900lb bilge pump system (slight exaggeration). Disgusting.it's covered in bilge slime. Climb out the companionway and haul up a bucket of salt water. Clean the pumps with Simple Green and a toothbrush. Disassemble and check for cloggage. All good. Reassemble. Wire on new small maintenance pump. Replace faulty automatic switch. Burn my fingers while heat-shrinking the butt connectors. What did Michel Thomas say? He always says this part too fast! I never hear it!? Note to self.look up "maybe" in the French dictionary. Test the new pump and switches. It's INCREDIBLE when things actually WORK!? Drop it back in the hole. Shine the flashlight to make sure it all looks okay. Ugh, a clump of wires is obstructing the new automatic switch.oops, there went the flashlight into the bilgewater. It's wedged between the side and the pumps. Pull out the pumps again. Drop my body into the 6 foot bilge and fish for the flashlight with my feet. Got it. It's still ON? That's good, I guess? Pumps go back down. All clear. Turn around to replace the floorboard and knock my favorite screwdriver into the bilge.let it go, Liz.just leave it for now.

Tattooed in streaks of bilge slime.no better time to clean the hull, then? Okay, need the big scraper (thanks to Chris yet again who brought me one from Hawaii), a brush, mask, fins.PLOP. I roll out of the dinghy dangling with algae eliminating apparatus. Scrapey scrapey scrapey! Wow, isn't this is a unique sort of algae this time?! Soft, fuzzy, and purple! Like underwater cashmere! Sorry, Swell, but I gotta take off your pretty sweater.Dive, scrape, scrape, take a breath, dive, scrape. No biting shrimps this time! Call me crazy, but I don't mind cleaning the hull.I feel a bit like a guy who's obsessed with buffing the bumper on his 1969 Chevy Nova.but really, it's peaceful down here. Nothing but me and the crystal blue. Sandy bottom in 15 feet of water. A puffer fish batting his undersized fins and making aimless circles below the keel.
What's this? A SEAHORSE!! There is a seahorse on my rudder! I'll leave it a little patch of purple sweater, then.It looks rather at home there.Ahh, Swell's many stowaways.Come to think of it, I haven't seen a cockroach in a month! Oh, but now there's a family of wasps that wants to live inside the mast. And poor Larry (the gecko from Marina Taina).He was chirping like a songbird in Kiribati, but I haven't heard a peep from him since those rough days at sea?.I hope he's okay? Scrape, scrape, dive, scrape, scrape scrape. "D'ou viens-tu?...Je suis de Californie." Scrape scrape scrape.

One side finished. That's enough of that for today.but I still have energy!?

Let's have a go at the cockpit board.hmm, some 5200 white adhesive, the drill, box of nuts and bolts, drill bits, countersink.drill for the size the bolts, find 4 of the same.
"Iaorana, Victor!" (This time I am actually speaking to someone other than myself. I'd met Victor the previous day. He'd invited me to paddle the 6-person outrigger around the bay with them.)

"Bien sur! I want to paddle again.In a race? Uh, yeah that sounds fun? Okay, I'll practice with you again tomorrow! Na na!" He paddles off.

I stare out at the a sunset.Ahh, a moment of repose.Reposer=rest in French! Liz.stop already...Qu'est-ce cet? Why am I sticking to the deck? (Long sigh.) There's a blob of 5200 under my thigh.