I’ve been saying for the past year that I needed to make a trip to the top of the mast. Well today was the day as we needed to check out our faulty wind vane (the gizmo that gives us wind speed and direction). It would work in higher winds but in light air it would do nothing. So we hauled out our never used bosun chair and hooked me up to the spinnaker halyard and the main sail halyard (the latter is brand new as of this morning) and up the mast I flew. Well not exactly – I started with going up about 3 feet just to see what the chair was like. Then I had Dan take me up (via electric winch) about 6 feet at a time. Let’s just say I needed time to adjust to the higher altitude.
I made it to the top and and pulled the existing wind vane off and took the required pictures that everyone takes when they get to the top of the mast (for those interested, that’s 56.5′ off of the water).
Now I won’t bore you with further details other than to say I ended up going up the mast three times but the result was successful – new wind vane installed.
I have to admit that I was a bit apprehensive about the trip up not knowing whether I’d get tangled in the shrouds or suddenly discover that I was afraid of heights. But the worry was for nothing as it was actually pretty fun – should have brought a book along as it would be a great place to hang out on a calm day. Woot Woot!
