Going Up The Mast...

A recent post on the Pegasus blog here, inspired me to go up Lucey Blue's mast and have a look around. The view from up Pegasus' mast was beautiful (their video should have been in the Britain From The Air documentary I watched here last night...great show!).

We have a bit of an unfair advantage over Pegasus though, as we have mast steps and a crows nest (for people who need to stop and rest on the way up...like me ;-). On Pegasus, Hamish had to prusik up the mast, and I can tell you now I'd be having none of that...maybe when I was 20...but not now!

First off Emily took a turn, and for someone who is only 5, she did an awesome job!




...note Mr 3 manning the winch below - you'll be pleased to know that the rope was tied off elsewhere and he had no control over Emily's ascent or otherwise ;-).


Holding on for dear life (even though we did tell her she was firmly tied off)! Check out her groovy full-body harness too. Emily has much tougher feet than me...I couldn't do it barefoot!


...takin' the easy way down


Then it was my turn...



Getting around the spreaders and the radar and TV antennas was not that much fun! By the time I had got to the crows nest I was pooped and decided not to go any further.


(Nick trying to make it look like I got a long way up....but in reality I made it about half way. Since the mast is about 17.2 m tall, that's only about 8.5 m up). But the view was still good.



...the trampolines look nice from up here

...note the missing main (away for repairs) and bimini + dodger (also being repaired and altered).

And finally up went Nick...for some real work. The Halyard for the Code 0 sail (which we don't have) was jammed in the pulley up there (I am sure there is better terminology to describe that, but I don't currently know what it is...):

...sorry its so dark, you'll have to believe me he is up there!

...so that was our morning climbing Lucey Blue's mast. It was fun!

Sam.