Last Minute Mast Jobs

We woke up to someone knocking on our hull. The guys from the boatyard were getting to move our neighbour John's boat in the water and needed to get our mast out of the way first.

We jumped out of bed, got straight down to help and we haven't stopped all day until now.

We tried to do some schoolwork after breakfast but then the guy who was coming to finish the bulkhead work came so we had to suspend that until tomorrow. No complaints there, obviously! 

There were a lot of things to accomplish today.

There was a deadline to meet so we gave the kids unfettered access to tablets for Minecraft and Netflix, had snacks and drinks available for them and basically said to take care of themselves.

I checked on them every so often but they were good, coming out now and again to help with a job.

The problem with our halyard from last night was our major challenge this morning. We tried various methods. We had resigned ourselves to having to have to do it when the mast was in. We could go up the mast and then drop a line down with a weight on it so you just let gravity do the work.

However, when our electrician came to make sure out all of our instruments on the mast were working, he gave the halyard challenge a go too. And he did it! He managed to use the first halyard that was pulled through to bring the other one in. He's like this awesome electrician halyard whisperer! We were so grateful.

Lesson learned: think before you do. And if you're tired, sick and overwhelmed, and the job is not super urgent, take a break and come back later.

Besides the many tasks we did in regards to the mast, the furling unit was put back together, the cutlass bearing was sealed, and we did several loads of laundry.

Tomorrow our chainplates go in. The mast step needs cleaning and drying. The cutter blade needs installing. More antifoul needs to be painted, especially around the waterline and rudder and under the pads where the boat is currently sitting on.

But we are on track for launching tomorrow. Just. I cannot believe it. The mast will go in Wednesday. There is still a ton of work to do after that, but tomorrow night we should be floating!

As Matt was feeding the endoscope down the mast to see what was
causing the line to snag, I was watching the video feed on the laptop.
Under my jacket because it was so bright.

Thinking about funding our sailing by offering cut price endoscopies and colonoscopies
on the dock while you wait. Real reason, rope has got snagged in the mast and tying to see why I can't feed it through. It keeps getting caught then coming back out covered in dog hair and sticky white stuff. I think we have a family of dogs living in our mast.

  

Securing the messenger line to the jib halyard.

The beast of a mast.

Aila playing horsey on the dock with the jib halyard.

Aila taping up the messenger line to the halyard to ensure it stays in place.

That pink string is the messenger line. On the LHS is the main halyard.
On the RHS is the jib halyard.

Getting work done on our bulkhead.

This is where the new bulkhead will go.

Tada! Our newly crafted bulkhead.

Picnic lunch in the aft cabin.

King Dominoes game played on our boating reference books. They are the perfect size!

Minecraft-ing in the same world.

Happy little helper.

Gold River Marina was calm and serene tonight. 

Evening fun with their new water guns.

How long is a piece of rope? Measuring the front headstay to make sure it will fit. 

Three amigos going for a stroll to check out more mast stuff.

Great place to run here.

Looking forward to not having to climb the ladder so much anymore.
So empty without John's boat next to us!

Goodnight world!