My Wife Never Lets Me Down … Wednesday 10th October
How lucky am I to be able to say "my wife never lets me down" and it's true, she's a wonderful woman! This afternoon I wish she had let me down - I was half way up the mast in the bosun's chair and Gloria wouldn't, couldn't, didn't lower me! The story actually starts on Monday night in the previously mentioned "anchorage #4". It's dark, rainy and pretty bumpy, and there's this awful screeching of metal on metal. A quick inspection reveals that our aluminum radar reflector is scraping against the side stay because the pulley line that holds the reflector under the spreader has broken. The whole lot is about to come down, I can't really see what is holding it up, but all I can do is tie the lower end off so it isn't scraping and go back to bed. In the morning we recover the reflector from overboard where it presumably fell sometime later that night. So this afternoon we decide to use the bosun's chair to go up the mast and re-thread the pulley. A few simple preparations - Gloria hits the head thinking she's the one who has to go up the mast - I valiantly volunteer to go myself, leaving Gloria to run the winch, and remind her that I no longer have any life insurance. The raising up the mast goes great, I re-thread the pulley and spend a few moments regretting not bringing up my camera and then it's time for the lowering. Nothing. Gloria checks the clutch and can see that the halyard is running free on the winch. When she comes forward she sees that a section of line (from the outhaul) has been dragged through a turning block by the halyard and the whole lot is jammed solid. I manage to get myself out of the bosun's chair and scramble down the mast arm over arm using the ropes that are hanging there. After some messing around we are able to get a wrench into the jammed ropes and lever them out of the turning block, much to our relief. The second trip up and down went much more smoothly and I got a second chance to take up my camera! The rest of the day was less exciting, but enjoyable all the same. We saw bald eagles from the boat before breakfast. Later in the morning we took our bikes to shore in the dinghy and did a 15 mile ride through the local farmlands.
Mike
A view from half way up the mast - anchored in the Sassafras River with Georgetown in the background
Looking down on the foredeck
Tree Fruit - multiple exposure
Rusty siding on the side of a shed
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