As we blew our spinnaker a couple of days ago it was inevitable that at some point, somebody would have to go up the mast and retrieve what was left of the sail, the swivel and the halyard from the top of the mast before it did any damage to our white sails or rigging.
I tried as best as I could to avoid the responsibility but my crew are not daft and volunteers were not very forthcoming. So up I go.
We waited for the best possible conditions we were likely to find mid Atlantic and went for it with a gentle 1m swell from astern and 10 - 12kts of wind. Running with the wind and swell was the better option than heading into it. Ordinarily, we would use the main halyard to lift someone up the mast with the spinnaker halyard as the safety line but as our spinnaker halyard was at the top of the mast we didn’t have that option. I decided to use a sling, double choked around the port stay and secured to my harness as my back up fall protection, should the main halyard fail. Injury mid ocean is not an option for me and I know I could slide myself down the wire stay, bit by bit, if I had to. The sling would also stop me from swinging around the mast too as I don’t fancy arriving in St Lucia covered in bruises.
With the boat set on the best course, the crew all briefed and in position, I was hoisted aloft. Our plan was to go up half way, assess if it was too swingy then abort or carry on. Susan Ann II’s mast is 22m high and I can honestly say that even in a 1m swell there is quite a lot of movement when at the top! The pitch and roll exaggerated by the height but I was happy to get the job done.
We also had the dyneema from inside the luff of the gennaker wrapped around the mast, shrouds, stays so I cut that away, secured the spinnaker halyard to myself and down I came. Easy peasy! Yeah right!
All went like clockwork and we didn’t even lose much time as were we still headed in the right direction. So once I was down, the sails went back up and on we go.
Well it’s something to tell the grand kids one day anyway.
Love from The Daley Adventure (Dave, Hayley and the crew of Susan Ann II) Xx
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