Wind…..

So today turned out to be a crap day for doing anything what so ever  on boat related projects with a stiff blow coming from North/Northwest in excess of a steady 20 knots, and gusts above 35.  Forecast says it’s gonna’ be like this ’til Tuesday.

Probably a great day to go sailing….. if only we had a steering wheel (currently hanging in the shed awaiting new varnish), or if the raw water supply to the engine was connected (two hoses clamps and a new impeller installed), or if we had the mainsheet traveler and all of the running rigging for the headsails reinstalled, and, since all the sailcloth is 36 years old, I’m not so inclined to tear it to shreds just yet….. Besides, I lost the main halyard to the top of the masthead back in early July when I tried unsuccessfully to hang an American Flag to celebrate the 4th.  The grommet ripped from the flag and the halyard shot all the way to the top of the mast.

Been meaning to go up there and fetch it, but first off, I’ve never climbed our mast and don’t know the first thing about doing that.  Second, the boat came with a shitty little bosun’s chair, and from what I’ve read you should always have a secondary safety line, and a competent person on a winch to tail you when going up the mast (neither of which is currently available at this juncture).  Since we have furling head sails (with two additional, yet currently preoccupied halyards) , the only other line we have available to go aloft is the boom topping lift.  I haven’t been able to convince Jeni to take MY life in HER hands to winch me up the mast on that single topping lift so’s I can grab the shackle and pull the halyard back down where it belongs.

I have a copy of Brion Toss’ book “The Complete Rigger’s Apprentice” and it includes very detailed descriptions and illustrations of how one would go about climbing one’s mast, but unfortunately, I think I may need to resort to one of those fancy solo-climbing set-ups like the “Mast Mate” or the “So-Lo-Climb”, or whatever the hell they’re called once I have a spare $500-600 bucks burning a hole in my pocket…

Today was Daylight Savings, but I prefer to call it “Daylight Wasting”.  The sun came up an hour earlier because we all “fell back” last night, but that only means that the sun goes down an hour earlier today.  Thus resulting in an hour of “wasted daylight”.  I woke up this morning at 5 a.m. instead of 6 (yet my brain still told me it was 6 even though the Government has convinced us to believe otherwise).  I ate lunch at 11:00 a.m. instead of my usual noon, and I’ll probably end up eating dinner at the geriatric hour of 5 p.m. instead of  the usual 6 or 6:30.  Do I now qualify for the “Early Bird Special” by dining in the mid-afternoon, instead of when normal folks my age eat dinner even though I’m still in my early 40’s?.  I don’t get it and never have, and I probably never will.  “Daylight Wasting” is a dumb idea, and for me only means less time to work on the boat without the threat of waking up my neighbors at the ass-crack of dawn with the noise of my power tools.  Looks like I’m going to have to call it a day and go watch T.V. until my 7 p.m. bedtime.

Here’s a video we took earlier this year when the wind was really blowing.