Up the creek...errrr, mast

The view from our bunk - one of my favorite spots for reading, dreaming and watching the clouds - the 65' mast. Probably the tallest in the marina and possibly the most slender and possibly the most difficult to get a sail up because of the running backs. We either have to pull the sail up fast and trust we miss the running backs or there is a lot of yelling and adjusting. The person on the helm has to be accurate into the wind. Sunday the sail went up like gangbusters - Robert had put Sailkote on the track and we had a new crew on board that was not exactly king kong, but he made it effortless. Then we tried out the furler for the first time. It stuck 1/3 the way out as we were heading down the Estuary. Another new crew went up the mast - Robert's 5/1 climber zooms him up and we see people taking pictures from the tour boat, cruise boats, dinghys. What the hell? We were so focussed on fixing the problem that we didn't realize we were putting on a show. A large boat going down the Estuary, sails out, sort of, people at the helm, and someone up the mast.
Jeff and I put Robert up the mast to set the sail cradle a few days before and we were astonished at how easy it was to run Robert up. But that was in the slip. Young John was up the the mast with the boat underway, trying to fix the jammed furler with an audience. Not possible. After my phone call to the rigger, who called Robert back, saying, "I understand the sky is falling" (A little sexism, there?) he will repair his work in the morning. In the meantime, Robert went up 2x and diagnose the problem and took photos of our deck with all the projects spread around. The sail cradle did work, sort of, but when we tried to douse the main - it was stuck, too. No one panicked as we could send young John all the way up - beyond the jib (fractional rig, not easy to get to the top) and get the main unstuck. But wait. We couldn't get the jib unstuck, but did manage to furl it back. All of a sudden the main dropped, the side of the cradle failed and there was a bemused silence from all the new crew. Robert and I didn't say anything and started flaking the main. Ok. The boat is intimidating to some, but these new crew knew what they were doing and pitched in and kept talking about going up the mast again. Enough already. We had fresh peach smoothies from Dave's ice cream after the jungle gym and sat around in the slip talking sailing stories. Not a bad day at all.

More help from our friends......

Life is tough for these fellows: they now wear harnesses and get training about "doing their thing" on command. They did that in the past, but not as specific as now. We will have a poop deck with fake grass on it - but they like to do their thing on bushes. We don't have a clue how to handle that.

Another friend we can't do without is Phil Chin - a Chinese rocket engineer. In fact we were in Cape Canaveral when one of his rockets went up successfully. He, along with Emma, the skipper's daughter, was my watch mate on a trip to Hawaii and we played cut throat Scrabble getting to scores of plus or minus one. He and Robert crawl back to the stern and the dialogue between one who deals in minuscule tolerances and the other, who dealt in bandwidths, and such, is enough to send me to the front bunk with ear plugs. They are trying to design the "arm" of the auto pilot. They think they have it - and I can hardly wait to test it out - but still, have to install the thing. Phil is very verbal and extremely funny, and Robert is quiet and with a dry wit and work well with each other. The Phil and Robert show is pretty inspiring and funny.I thought you could just call Raymarine and get the stuff and put it in and take off. No way - it has been three weeks of off and on visits and confabs and drawings and test builds and options explored and options rejected. What was I thinking?

A little help from our friends......

That's five spinnakers, a "shadetree", two sewing machines and Robert in the backyard of Linda's house - it is the new stitch and bitch society. Robert did the wand holders for the shade fabric while I stitched what felt like endless seams. This, we can remember when in warm tropical places and are cooled by this structure. It stands with the help of the wands from the lifelines and allows the wind to come through - we hope - also is tent fabric and in a pinch, we could use it to collect water. We are blessed to have a friend such as Linda who opens her house and heart to the hooligan family - hair all over the place from Koa and Shaash,

who allows us to work on the big projects in her space. The next photo is of Jack, who has had a shoulder replacement, two knee replacements, a hip replacement and has prostate cancer. He was delighted when he found he could still climb masts. He is going deer hunting in Idaho before his prostate surg. - very quiet, unassuming guy. yet he went up our 60' mast with us winching. Well, Robert and a neighbor. And then there is Jeff, who took a diagram, made another and installed a work of art for the head, so we don't have to go two blocks to save SFO Bay. And Bridget and Dave, who put up the sail cradle and screwed brass closers - we are blessed. So, we get by, with a little help from our friends.