Have you ever had that feeling where you're sure something won't quite go the way you want it to? I had this nagging doubt at the back of my mind that something would go wrong stepping the mast, but I have gotten so used to having nagging doubts about everything on my boat that I figured this would work out just as well as everything else had. Technically I'm still ahead of schedule, but still not sailing. I brought my siblings down with me to the marina on Wednesday to try and get the mast up. I was able to get the rig straightened out, and all the stays in order. The wind got too strong for me to attempt it with such a young crew on hand. One thing that I did learn from this exercise though is that my mast has one more shroud per side than my boat has chain plates for. Basically: 3 wires per side to hold the mast up, but only 2 spots for them to attach to. After consulting the cruiser's forum I decided I could throw the mast up and hope for the best.
I awoke early in the morning to thick fog coating the harbor. I called up some friends to help raise the mast, and we commenced aroung 10:00. I was worried more that I wouldn't be able to get out sailing because of the fog than that I might not get the mast up at all. We tried brute force about 3 times before we gave up and went to get lunch. I remembered how we had raised the mast on another boat last year, so I rigged up the boom to act as a fulcrum and used all of my new halyards and sheets as hoisting rigging. It was tough work, I had two guys hauling back on the winches, one girl steadying the boom and making sure the mast was square on the mast step, and I was lifting the thing as high as I could over my head while standing on the dock. The infernal aluminum stick is a lot heavier than you'd think, and one of the spreaders clonked me in the head pretty good. After some time a neighbor came to help after he and his wife had a little trouble docking their sloop. Spencer, my little brother, went to help them tie off, and in return they hopped in on the mast project and lent us the extra manpower we needed to get it done. After a lot of groaning, twisting, leaning, and freaking out the mast slid over the step squarely with a resounding clunk! It was only after it got all the way in the vertical position that the wind started to play havoc with us. A six foot tall person trying to steady a 25 foot long mast on a swaying boat is no easy feat. My friend, Gavin, was instructed to run around and attach the turnbuckles as soon as possible so we could be relieved of our stabilizing duty; it was then that we realized (much to my dismay) that the shrouds were about 16" too short. Somehow I expected that it wouldn't work out, but I was more worried that they would be too long, not too short. I was not as depressed as I could have been. We gathered our thoughts and slowly dropped the mast back down to the deck. I was glad that during the last few seconds when it popped loose and everyone lost control that it didn't go through any one's kneecaps.
I thought about my options. Maybe I could hack off the bottom of the mast, but then the fore stay and back stay would be too long, and the jib wouldn't fit. I could buy all new shrouds, but that costs money. Maybe I'll just use some extenders or some chain to fill in the gap. I need to have it work perfectly before I attempt it again. Sadly I won't have any more money untill June. I just can't wait to get out sailing. The weather was so perfect.
I did get to walk around the beautiful south pier district of Sheboygan and check out the surf shop. My friend, Stephanie, is back from her mission to Arizona, so we spent all day catching up on life. It was nice to relax by the pool, grill some burgers, and retire watching Toy Story 3.
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