"Legacy": Up the mast

Sunday, September 18, 2011

Up the mast

We found out a couple weekends ago that our Anchor light on the masthead wasn't working. Figuring that it was a bad bulb, I decided to go up the mast for a look. Given that we normally have to do things shorthanded, I got an ATN Mastclimber to make the accent.

The climber worked very well. I got my Mom to go along with me and then my daughter decided to tag along as well. I used the spinnaker halyard as the climbing line and the boom lift as a safety line. My mom tailed the slack on the boom lift as I went up.

It actually worked well, although I did have one problem. I had fastened the Spinnaker halyard to the base of the mast before climbing. However, once my 215 pounds put tension on the halyard it stretched, leaving too much slack in the line below me to easily slide the ascenders up the line. My Mom (age 77 btw) put a winch on the halyard and was able to raise me up about 6 inches to remove the slack. That made it a lot easier.

I got to the top and found that the bulb looked good but I wasn't getting any power to it. While I was up there, I took a few photos, then came down again.

The ATN Mastclimber worked great. If an old, fat, out of shape guy like me with a bum knee can do it, most anyone can. I will admit to a few sore muscles over the next couple days however.

This is the view from the top.

Legacy's stern from the Masthead


Legacy's bow from the Masthead

View of my Marina from the top.


Murphy's Landing

Panorama's of Gig Harbor. There is some wide angle distortion of course, the Harbor really isn't shaped that way.

No comments:

Post a Comment

Legacy

My parents taught me to sail at age 5 in Gig Harbor, WA. Much of my childhood was spent going to sailing regattas with my folks. We either were racing boats, or my Father was prepping Clark boats to sell. Selling boats allowed him to afford the sailing habit. Never the accomplished skipper my father was, or as good at sail trim as my mother, I do have a box of old trophies from racing in my childhood.

My folks moved to larger boats as the Clark Boat Co., based in Kent, WA. started to make larger boats. We had a San Juan 21, then raced and cruised on a San Juan 24.

My folks took a break from boat ownership for a while as life got busier and money got tighter. I was busy with school activities and didn't have the time, nor passion, for sailing at the time.

Eventually, my folks got the urge again and bought a few boats finally owning a Cal-29 for some years. They named the boat "Revival" in recognition of both their reawakening faith as well as their return to serious boating. They cruised on "Revival" all over Puget Sound and into the San Juan Islands and Canadian Gulf Islands. All the grandkids learned to sail small boats while living on board "Revival" for a week or two each summer.

As the grandkids grew, it got to be a tight fit to have all 5 of the kids, with them on the boat. My Dad found an older, poorly treated, Catalina 36 and bought it. It took my folks over a year of evening and weekend labor before the boat was fit to sail and cruise on. They named this boat "Vision", both because of what their vision was for how the boat could be used by the family, as well as a nod to my father's and my optometric practice.

My father died suddenly of a stroke and cerebral hemorrhage while my folks were cruising in the Canadian Gulf Islands in 2006.

As the kids left for college, and I got a little more time, we started to use "Vision" more and then started to yearn for a little more space and a rig that was a bit easier for the two of us to sail comfortably. We decided to sell "Vision" and look for a Catalina 400.

Hence "Legacy". My parents have passed on to me, my sister, our families, and our children a love of sailing and being on the water. For us, a boat is more about shared family experience, than anything else. This is the real legacy left to us by my parents, and one for which I'll be forever grateful.