Friday 14th May
With one stormy wet weekend following another May was drifting on by without any possible sailing. But I had a few jobs to do up the mast so I arranged with Sailaway to use their waiting mooring and dry Elektra out in the shelter of St Anthony.
Vicki and I moved Elektra into St Anthony on Thursday evening ready for mast work on Friday while dried out. I dont like climbing the mast afloat as other boat users dont care and just a wash while up the mast can fling the climber around a lot.
I was down in the morning early getting things ready to climb the mast (we have a mast ladder which allows me to climb with Vicki taking up the slack on the safety line) and also filled water tank and a few other jobs. Vicki arrived at 1100hrs just as Elektra was taking ground. Once aboard I got the harness on and a nail bag to carry some tools and headed up the mast. Climbing a upright ladder isnt the easiest thing to do but it’s quite quick and one at the the mast head the safety harness and line allows to work hands free. First job was to get the wind speed working, I had to unplug and used silicone spray to get it spinning well again. Plugged back in again it was spinning like a new one! The wind indicator was a easy fix, just ajusting it a little. On the way back down the mast I decided to go all the way and get a bucket of hot soppy water to clean the under side of the spreaders and the radar reflector. Once this was done I could come down again and relax. Then it was time to put all the gear away again.
With the mast work done, we had a bit lunch and relaxed in the cockpit, it was 1700hrs before Elektra floated again and 1/2hr later we motored Elektra back out to her mooring.
Love Sailing 