The Mast is Finished!

We got up early this morning (I got up early, then woke up poor Trevor at 8:30 on a Saturday) to try and beat the heat to work on the boat. We managed to get there around 10:30, which is pretty good for us. Hey, did you know there's actual shade at 10:30 am? It's really quite nice.

Warning, this entry is super-full of parentheses (to explain things without making another sentence). It'll probably be annoying to read, but I didn't realize I was doing it until it was too late. Just so you're warned. Now, on to the excessive use of parentheses!

So Trevor got to work on the steaming light (light that points forward about halfway up the mast, so people can see us if we're heading toward them), and I started working on the all-around light at the top (so people can see us anchored from far away and know to stay away from us, because we're mean and scary when awakened at night). We both had to drill new holes for the new hardware. And we both had to redrill those holes because they weren't quite right the first time (poor mast and mast cap had a bad day). The wire Trevor bought had really thick insulation (good) that made it really hard to work with (bad). So we had some challenges with that. Had to go to the marina store to get wire terminals for the all-around light (the steaming light is well-designed and didn't need them for installation). It was a struggle, but I finally got the light all wired up and put on the mast cap.

Then it was on to the VHF antenna! I got the wind vane put on it (without incident, if you can believe it!), then worked on getting the cable adapter plug thingy (technical term) put on. As a side note, it takes three hands to solder things. Humans do not have three hands. Thank goodness for my trusty sidekick, the Dread Pirate Trevor. When he wasn't holding things for me, Trevor worked on mounting the antenna bracket. Again, holes had to be redrilled after a screw broke off in one (he doesn't know his own strength sometimes).

So the bracket was on, the plug soldered, and everything was ready to go! Then I realized that I didn't run the cable through the hole in the mast before I put the plug on. Oh No! We didn't have extra hardware to redo the plug, so we made the hole big enough to get the plug through. Not sure if this was the best idea, but it was the only idea we had. By the way, the shade was gone by now, and it was hot! The sound of drilling a really big hole in the mast is a terrible one. Lots of metal screeching punctuated by the occasional "ouch!" from Trevor as hot metal slivers landed on him. But the hole was drilled, and the antenna was ready!

So we went to put the cap on and realized something else I did wrong. The wire for the all-around light looped around a shroud or a rope or something (I'm a little fuzzy now on exactly what it was, but it was bad, and I was pissed). Oh no! So we took the whole light fixture off and ran the wire the right way. But of course, the terminals couldn't be used again (I did a superb job of clamping them, so they were ruined). And the marina store was closed. So we had to make due with terminals that were a little small for the job. We'll just have to see how those hold up. I've gotten really good at wiring that light, so I think I'm capable of doing it dangling from a rope 40' up if I have to. I hope I don't have to.

In the end, the wires are all connected, the lights attached, the antenna looking pretty awesome with its wind vane, the main halyard run (couldn't get that done from the aforementioned dangle position a few months back), and the wires coming out of holes (the one hole that only had to be drilled once) at the bottom of the mast. Whoo!

Oh! And we looked at the fiberglass work they did on top of the boat. Totally sweet! It looks so much better than when I bought the boat. And they put in a totally sweet piece of hardware running through the deck. It's shiny and full of awesome! Sale Creek does nice work.

In conclusion, the mast is done! There was plenty of frustration, a few (lots!) swear words uttered (and yelled). But we got it done. And we're still engaged, so that's good.

Told you the parentheses were excessive. Sorry 'bout that.