Sunday 17 Oct, re-launch 2021, HHN day 18: All day at the mast in beautiful autumn weather, then an evening out with Cloudy Bay fans from Costa Rica.
After the cold front came through yesterday evening it’s been … well, cold! Or should I say wonderfully cool. Today was one of those glorious autumn days. Blue sky, fresh air, leaves blowing off the trees. The heat is over… at last. Now the race to get south before we need winter clothing begins.
The whole day was again dedicated to the mast. Again, I am surprised how long all this takes to do properly. It seems every place I look on the mast, there is something that still needs to be done.
First, I finish off the final touches to the mast top by placing cable clamps on the coax cables and mast head light. Once the mast is vertical, the weight of these cables must not hang on the electrical connections to the antenna nor navigation light. The weight needs to the held by good cable clamps. At first, I struggle to get a round clamp to secure 2 round cables. The cables just slip in the clamp. Yet the next size down clamp is too small. So I end up jamming pieces of UV plastic into the gaps to get the clamp tight enough. Another example of a quick 5-minute job that ends up taking almost an hour.
Then I put the genoa dual sheave and the cutter single sheave back into the front side of the mast. I had a bit of a panic attack on the genoa sheave block because I suddenly remembered that I took it out from the top of the mast. But the mast top is now back on and bolted down! Ooopsy. As I’m cursing to myself, I decide to give-it-a-go installing it from outside the mast. And what do you know, it slips in just fine! Very odd that I could not get it out this way, but it will go back in OK. A new day, a new way, I guess. Anyway, I feel relieved. Having to take the mast top off again would certainly have been a backward step.
At the foot of the mast, I decide to remove a small stainless-steel fitting that guides the hydraulic hoses into the mast. I want to renew the HDPE plastic between it and the mast. But the first of 6 bolts shears-off when I try to undo it. Same old story, the SS bolts are corroded into the aluminum. And unfortunately, 4 more bolts go the same way, leaving only one that comes out normally. That leaves me with 5 bolt stubs to drill out, while I curse myself for attempting this “just one more fitting” to remove. I should have left it where it was! It takes me 2 full hours to drill the stubs, clean, make new isolation backing and rivet them back in. Once completed I vow to myself: no more fittings to be removed. Enough! Rebuild only from now on, or this mast will never go back up again!
Finally, after a lot more faffing here and there, I get to put the mast foot back on. This is actually a simple task, thank goodness. I had already cleaned all the corrosion out of the mast foot so it is just a matter of neatly feeding all the electrical cables through the conduit holes, holding the foot in place and giving it one final clout with a piece of 2 x 4 wood. And it’s in! Tomorrow I will secure it with its 2 bolts and 8 rivets that hold it in place. If you ask me, these are not really necessary considering the full weigh of the mast will be on this foot. It’s not like it going to fall off!
During my various trips back to the boat, for this tool or that, I can hear Oana inside performing her new sport. The sounds of thrap! …. Thrapp! …then some cursing emanates from inside the cabins. We have been (un)blessed with a plague of fruit flies and they are driving Oana crazy. She is going around whacking them with fly-swats. But it seems like a no-win game, they are multiplying faster than she can kill them!
In the evening we agreed to meet up with Thomas and Anabel from Costa Rica. They wanted to meet at the Annapolis boat show, but we had ended up leaving early. Hence they had driven down to Herrington Marina this evening to take us out to dinner at our local Dockside restaurant. It turns out they are Venezuelan, now living in Costa Rica. So we first spend a bit of time discussing the demise of their home country and how all the Venezuelans that we know, have emigrated elsewhere.
Then onto boaty talk. Since they want to buy a boat and cruise similar style to us, there is a lot of discussion on boat types, pluses and minuses of monohull vs catamaran and how to go about getting the needed experience. 101 questions, all of which we are very happy to answer while we eat our dinner. We are always a bit reluctant to commit to an evening with people we don’t know of before-hand. But Thomas and Anabel are a really nice couple, and we had a very enjoyable evening together.