Progress

Well, we have had a fun day. As the wind seemsto be lighter in the morning we decided to get going on the jib halyard first thing. We had a bit of a palaver getting the ascender set up and working out which was the best halyard and such like to use for the ascender. Eventually, we settled on the main halyard for the bosuns chair and the topping lift for the ascender.

Tom Cunliffe had a chapter in his latest book from which I had got the idea and it all looked great. The reality is that it is a lot of hard work but is eminently possible. There is no way that Audrey could have wound me up the mast even with the genoa sheet winches but with me stepping up on the ascender, we got there in the end.

I even remembered to tie the new jib halyard onto the chair so didn't have to come back down for it. We even got it threaded and reeved without too much swearing. There are good views from the top of the mast as well.

Next up was a quick trip to Sheppards in Gib to get some nuts and bolts with a view to tackling the windmill. Suffice to say that it is erected and a cable is now led to the regulator by the chart table but lack of daylight and an urgent need on my part for beer has meant that the last bit of connecting it to the batteries will have to wait.

We should have that done tomorrow when we will see about boring all the legions of readers with photos.