Our “to do” list is built on a Reminders app that we can share with each other. Of course there are multiple lists. “Buy for Mischief”. “Mischief Projects”. “Load onto Mischief”. “Put Calypso to Bed for Winter”. Each of these has items, many of those with subtasks. The “Mischief Projects” list started with 84 and has swelled over time to 151 projects; we’re down to 37 remaining, only 12 of which are critical. It’s possible we’ll actually make our launch date of November 7, only a full month later than we’d hoped.

One of those critical projects is “install Monitor”. The Monitor, a mechanical self-steering gear that keeps the boat steering on a course relative to the wind angle. It’s been cleaned, polished. Bolted into position for a dry fit, removed, and bedded with sealant. The paddle has been hooked up. There’s an argument to be made that the Monitor has, indeed been installed.

But it hasn’t. The control lines need to be run. And, most important, it has not been tested. If you’re paying attention, you realize that this means that critical project will not be ticked off as finished until AFTER we’re in the water. You’re right.

The final step of any project at all is to test it. It’s fine and dandy to say the propane system is good to go when you hook up the propane tanks to the stove - it’s another level entirely when you successfully boil water on the stove. 

When Jeremy was putting the final touches on the mast wiring, with the mast on sawhorses at ground level, Chris, one of the yard guys, wandered by. “You going to test that?” Jeremy looked at him. “Hey, it’s easier to fix it when it’s not 50 feet in the air!” Later that evening, when it was dark enough to see lights, Jeremy took a spare little battery out to the wires. The ensuing glow made it clear that the mast wiring was indeed good to go.

Was “mast wiring” ticked off the list?

Not until the mast was stepped, and the wires were hooked up to the boat electrical panel, and the lights worked. Which wasn’t as easy as this sentence makes it sound; a couple of the wires from the electrical panel were dead, involving some good boat yoga and a few curses. At least it didn’t involve a trip up the mast.

here’s a saying that when you assume something, you make an a$$ out of you and me. Plugging wires into an electrical panel and assuming all will work is a case in point. Sure, maybe often it will work just fine. But if it doesn’t? And you’re sailing at night and flick on the lights, since you tested the wires before you put the mast up and the lights worked then? And they don’t come on?

It’s tempting to hook up wires, or connect propane lines, or bolt in a self-steering gear, and call it done.

It’s not done until it’s been tested. Even if it means you can’t tick off that item for a while.