Rainy and Wet!

Obviously, the weather has to be crappy when one has decided to go to the boat.
Dad lives next door to RS so we started the day with coffee and a chat while the rain kept on. I became restless eventually and took Annika with me out, where we put on our rain clothes.

Time for the mast to get some love and a check up.
We started by lifting it to the trestles I had brought.
I started by loosening everything. Because the mast has lain in a mast stand outside for at least two years, it was green both here and there, mostly in the running rig. The more I loosened and looked the more I realised that it was only a little dirt and a matt finish on the mast which a wash with some soft soap would fix.

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I started at the top and checked the split rings and removed old Tesa.
Annika got the task of washing and scrubbing all the halyards which had achieved a certain greenish shade. I examined all the halyards and the only thing I noticed was a little sliver on the wire part of the main halyard. This is nothing that needs changing this year but it felt good to get to know the rig. Annika received a quick lesson to get an idea about what all the lines were . She has never had nor sailed a sail boat but wants to learn everything, preferably all at once.
We went through halyard by halyard and I explained what they were and what they were used for. A really cozy lesson despite the pouring rain and the chill in the air. The mast was scrubbed with soapy water (a lot of soft soap) and I used a soft Scotch brite and a rim brush to reach around fittings and other things that are attached to the mast. This creates edges where green algaes have a party. Later all is rinsed with just water.

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It started to get wet and cold for real and I understand why Annika's mood started to dip. It was after all time to go home and get some food into our bodies. For those of you who don't know us, I can tell you that both me and Annika get proper blood sugar dips and thus really bad mood unless we get food when we need it. Hahaha!
So we tied all the halyards and everything else that ran along the mast to the mast to prevent them from moving as much as possible. We rinsed off the mast one final time so that it looked nice. It was too wet and cold now to grease the mast with parrafin oil and remove old Tesa tape with acetone. There will be more days and it is still winter after all.
But wow, do I look forward to all of this. After all the trouble I had with the motor boat which actually threatened to break me totally, this feels so much better.
We ended the day by lifting the mast back into the stand again and go up to Dad and warm up a little before we drove home.
Writing today: Skipper Hasselblad

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