Projects, projects, projects

We were at a working boatyard for exactly a month, down to the day. It was a long month of getting the boat ready, with a few moments of fun thrown in. Here are a few of the highlights.

Ripping out the old head.

New Airhead composting toilet installed. No more holding tank or smelly hoses!

Our dinghy was in bad shape and needed some fiberglass work.

And painting…

The engine needed some work, so I saw a lot of this.

Our messenger line, a stand-in for the halyard that is threaded through the mast, rotted away in the Florida climate. So we were without a line that leads to the top of the mast…which means that Tig had to find a way to get to the top of our mast and drop in a new messenger line. Getting a crane would have set us back a couple of weeks and $500, so Tiguyver spent a few sleepless nights figuring out a way in his head.

He came up with this rig to climb the mast, which would would probably cause an uproar among armchair cruisers. Let me be very clear. We do NOT recommend this. You could kill yourself free-climbing a smooth metal pole if you fall from 50 feet in the air. The rigging could fail. I’m not posting a tutorial on how to do it. You can YouTube how to climb a mast unassisted. Tig did what he had to do, given our circumstances, and we had a few safety lines set up. Still, it was a risk.

Near the top. He was able to drop in the messenger line, which I pulled through from the bottom of the mast, along with the jib halyard.

Then he had to go back up again to drop in the main halyard messenger line. This time, he used the jib halyard and a bosun’s chair. A bit more safe.

Putting the boom on. It’s resting on my shoulder.

In between, we spent some time doing paperwork and dealing with bureaucracy.

And provisioning…

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