More slow progress...

Well, the good news is that I accomplished some stuff, the bad news is, just not that much.

Serena was broken again today, so I had to go work on the mast myself. I devised a way to get the halyards back through the mast by myself. I made a 4" wide triangle out of 1/16" aluminum and drilled 5 - 1/2" holes through it, one at the point, and 4 along the bottom. I had 1 tag end left in the mast, and I taped it to the hole at the point, and then tied in each halyard into one of the holes in the bottom. The triangle was big enough that it wouldn't rotate in the mast, but small enough that it would pull all the way though. Then I put each halyard loosely in an empty container and spaced them so that they wouldn't have a chance to wrap around each other during the pull through. Lastly I pulled the tag end through the mast 3 feet at a time, going down to the other end to make sure the lines stayed fair, and voila, I had 4 halyards run the full length of the mast, perfectly parallel to each other, and not tangled around anything. Mind you, they are 6 feet away from the sheaves that they are supposed to run through, but one step at a time.

Next I taped a small line to a halyard, and pulled the halyard back so that the small line was under the sheave. Using a metal coat hanger with a little hook in it, I was able to hook the small line and draw it through the sheave. Mind you it sounds much easier than it was. But I did that for each of the 4 halyards and then tidied up the mast.

I also had time to run two 14/2 wires through the small conduit that was already in the mast for the steaming light and the deck light. I installed the new light, soldering and heat shrinking the wires. Then I labeled them at the bottom of the mast with my new label machine, oh is it nice.

Truth was, I wasn't even thinking about taking pictures today, I was so concentrated on getting the job done, because I won't see the boat for another 3 days, I have to get some of the landscaping done. I will try to get some pictures later, although pictures of the rig to get the halyards in would have been nice. I need to get better at this whole picture thing.

Have a great May 24, for those in Canada.

Rob.