Up the Mast

Today was another first for the captain and crew of the Mystic Journey. We have needed to change the bulb in the anchor light for a while now - since Dominica. However, that entails one of us going up the mast. One of us being Griff since I can't see myself ever going up the mast. First we didn't have a bosun's chair to get him up the mast. Then after buying a bosun's chair we just couldn't get around to doing it. We meant to do it while Randy and Aleitha were here so he could help hoist, but it didn't happen. Since then the wind and rain have not been coorperative. We should have done it while up on the hard when the boat would not have been moving, but again for various reasons didn't. Today we had to even though the wind was blowing. We could hear a knocking sound against the mast and on investigation we discovered that one of the flood lights on the first spreader had come loose and was swinging freely in the wind. So we bit the bullet and up the mast Griff went.

Hanging on for dear life!!! (honestly, I do trust Cheryl)

I was worried about whether or not I would have the strength to get him up, but he was able to assist by pulling up on the other ropes that run along the outside of the mast. Getting him down was the next worrisome task. I remembered what Julie had told us about her experience hoisting Graham up their mast under the tutelage of an "old salt" friend of theirs. She said he told her to just lower him gradually using the winch as a brake and I also remembered the technique we use when slowly letting out the mainsail. All went well including sending supplies up in the bucket because of course once he got up there he found he needed a few things that he hadn't taken up with him. I found I wasn't as nervous as I expected to be while he was up there. I was even able to take some pictures and go below deck to get the supplies for him.

View from the Top

Now my side of the story - well, actually there is no my side. Just reading what Cheryl wrote, it sounds like we were avoiding going up the mast but that is not really the case. My concern was Cheryl getting wiped out from hauling me up there. I was on the winch for someone else once and it was tiring. Cheryl came through like a trooper. As for me - it was really exhilarating. It's funny because if I walk too close to the edge of a dropoff, I get dizzy and do NOT like it but as long as I have something to hold on to, I am okay. When I was in the military, I participated in an exercise where I had the opportunity to help drop supplies from an Otter (small plane sometimes used for cargo) to some officer cadets below. It was really cool because after we dropped the supplies, we would sit in the open cargo door with our feet hanging over the edge but strapped in and HOLDING ON. The pilots, who were reservists and usually pilots for the big airline companies, would tour around after the drop so it was lots of fun.

Back to the Caribbean - we are getting ready to leave for Tobago. We could have gone this week but wanted to wait until Graham (Julie's Graham) was gone in case he needed a hand with putting his boat on the hard at St Davids. He came over last night and stayed with us - also helped set up my SSB for Airmail use - and he left for Toronto this morning. The last thing we have to do is get the new dinghy davits adjusted so the dinghy sits closer to the boat when the dinghy is out of the water. That will be done Monday. The other factor is the weather. It has been kind of unsettled the last week or so, with strong winds, lots of rain and fairly high seas. That may be calmed a bit by Monday but whether it is or not, we are going to head out early next week.

So, see you in Tobago (or Trinidad, or Tostigos, or Margarita or wherever the wind favours!!)