Yesterday, Peter and I strung the coax for the VHF in the mast. We did this by attaching a tracer line to the masthead wind instrument wire, and pulling it out of the mast from the top. We attached the coax line with tape, and pull both back into the mast. We did this so there wasn't any chance of the coax line wrapping around the halyards inside the mast.
The Mike's terminated the coax ends, and attached antenna, wind instrument, windex, running back stays, check stays, and backstay whip:
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| Sandal model Michael at the masthead |
We wheeled the mast over to the mast crane. It was blowing 20+ knots from the east, which is a lot of wind to do the masting, but it was from the east, meaning the mast would not be pushed into the crane. The wind was fairly constant, so we decided to bring ACE over:
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| Melissa and Mike |
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| Pretty boat |
I don't have any picture from the masting, because we were all VERY busy. We got the mast in the air, and went to swing it over to the boat, when the wind started gusting to over 30 knots. With Melissa and I on the mast crane swing arm, it was all we could do to keep the mast from swinging over past the boat. If Mike didn't come over off the boat, we would have had to bail to prevent Melissa and I from going in the water.
In the wind, BOTH running backstays and the actual back stay got free and were dangling at a 45 degree angle from the mast. We go the mast on the boat, and attached the stays. While attaching the forestay, another gust cause a part for the load sensor to go in the water. That is going to be expensive! Hopefully I can retrieve it with the Fish TV.
We patiently waited for the wind to let up and retrieved the backstays.
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| ACE at Mast crane with her stick and Tanker Jones, the WYC race committee boat |
Mission accomplished.
Our new spinnaker and repaired mainsail comes from Nova Scotia this week.
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