On the Hard Again!

I guess Willie Nelson would say, “On the hard again.” The boat is not gently swaying with the currents and the wind just whistles and howls through the rigging—well not so tonight since the rigging is on the ground! We left Fort Pierce City Marina last Wednesday for Riverside Boatyard expecting to have the mast pulled on Friday. Riverside is a huge boat yard. There are easily 2 or 3 hundred boats here in various states of repair and disrepair.

At any rate, we expected to have the mast pulled on Friday after Thanksgiving. Then we learned that we could have it pulled on Monday or Tuesday. There were two or three other boats whose owners wanted to pull or restep their masts and there is economy in numbers. Economy only goes so far when you have to pay for each day you sit on the jackstands even when no work is being done. So, this AM, we contracted for a crane and the mast was pulled. It was a really painless operation completed in a matter of 30 minutes.

The unwelcome surprise came when Peter removed the original mast step and found it to be unsalvageable. So now, the welding shop is fabricating a new step, adding 3 ½ inches to its height to compensate for the corroded part of the mast that Peter cut off. While the mast is on the ground, Peter will move the radar further aloft in order to add track to the front of the mast so we can store the whisker pole on the mast. This is for Claudia’s comfort and pleasure when “scampering” along the sidedeck uncluttered by the likes of a whisker pole. Then, he will replace the incandescent steaming light with LED and maybe replace the coax for the VHF with heavier coax.





The mast step



The bottom of the mast

We spent a somewhat uneventful Thanksgiving Day. Friends on board “Second Wind,” we met them at the City Marina, volunteered at a mission and brought us leftover turkey and fixings from the meal that was served there. Mostly we spent the day preparing to have the mast pulled; removing the mainsail, the lazy jacks, binding all the halyards to the mast, disconnecting wires, etc.
Before we left the City Marina, we had a night visitor, an osprey that was completely unfazed by the fake snake dangling from the bow pulpit of the boat next to ours. The osprey was equally unfazed by the flash of our camera and remained perched for well over an hour. The next day, he had lighted atop our mast and sat there for quite some time. Later, we saw him with a fish in his talons.

Yesterday, Peter took a walk from Riverside to Harbourtown Marina. There is a big citrus shipper about a quarter of a mile from the boatyard. If one were so inclined, he could help himself to Indian River grapefruits off a semi trailer. Then, the road is lined with bushes bearing gourmet pink peppercorns. Finally and of ultimate importance, about a half a mile away is a store that sells that all important commodity—RUM.