Up!

December 1
I'm very thankful that I'm not afraid of heights! Today, I had to go up the furled jib to repair one of the jib sheets which had started to unravel. I had to burn the ends and do some whipping, it took me a little while to adjust to the Bosun's chair. We ate lunch! Then I was sent up the mast to do some sanding of sharp aluminum edges. Once I was hoisted 75 feet up in the air... I realized that it wasn't sharp, it was all bent. Came back down to gather more tools, and a pashmina scarf to wrap around my waist for back support. This time I got to the top of the mast and the tools were too large to help in re-bending the metal. It was crazy!! Thank god we had mini radio's to communicate with the ground crew... otherwise it would have been tough to yell down below. I did three trips up and down the mast, until the problem was all fixed. During my maintenance on the mast, I had a small audience watching from all around the marina. Let me just say, that going up a mast is nothing like going rock climbing. The AT(air traffic controller) device was very useful for the controlled decent down the mast! Hopefully, I'm not scheduled to do anymore maintenance up there for a long while. Another project: the hard bimini is interfering with the boom sheet at times. We went to Home Depot to find a homemade solution... PVC hose for the plumbing section. I'm sure that it will help from any chaffing that might occur. It's still nice and hot... a cold front is supposed to arrive tonight, and perhaps early tomorrow. Freeport is on hold until further notice.