Up I go!

So this past weekend we took advantage of the calm winds to get some stuff done with the sails and the mast.  We were able to get the mainsail bent on a couple weeks ago, but when we purchased her there had been some issues with the in-mast furling so the light winds allowed us to play with that a bit.  Finicky things, those in-mast furlers, especially this one!  We never had a problem with the Selden in-mast furling on Knotty, but Tango has been a bit more of a problem child!  We also got our headsail bent on, which now opens up a lot of room in our forward cabin, or what J refers to as our “storage closet”.

So, back to the in-mast furling...  J and I both agree that when we leave in a few years, we do not want to leave with this mast.  It is just too temperamental and don’t want to have to worry about it when we are in the middle of the ocean or if we hit rough weather.  We’re using the Navy training J had for 20 years and trying to apply KISS (Keep It Simple Sailor) to all essential systems; so, we’ve been entertaining some different options.  We can buy a new mast ($$$$) or we can try to find a used one.   J has been talking to a fellow Mason 44 owner who recently upgraded his spar with a carbon fiber mast.  Depending on the condition of the mast, we may buy that one.  But before we can even consider replacing the mast, we had to know exactly how tall Tango’s mast is.  That meant one of us was going up the mast to measure and, seeing as how I am the lighter of the two of us, it was a no brainer who it was going to be.  Plus, even with the assistance of the winch, I’m not sure I could have hoisted J up there!

Thanks to my repelling experience when I lived in San Diego, and the awesome gift my big bro got me years ago (which I’m so happy I kept through all our moves), I put on my harness and up I went!

Me, repelling in San Diego, 2007 (note this is not said awesome harness)

47' 7.5" above deck (to be exact) :)

Other side of our marina - shame we're the only full dock.

We wanted to run our flag halyard lines last weekend as well, but the line we had previously purchased for Knotty’s port flag halyard (but never got around to putting on) was too short, so looks like I’ll be taking another ride back up the mast to do that.   Oh and when I was at the top of the mast I discovered that the spinnaker halyard is not run correctly (runs around the front of the headsail halyard…oops!) so that will need to be re-run as well.  The positive to all this is that while I’m not afraid of heights, I wouldn’t say I’m a huge fan of them – these hoists up the mast are certainly forcing me to be more comfortable and giving J a good workout!