Almost.  That’s how far it seems when you’re going up the mast.  Or in the case of Bright Angel Bob who volunteered to “grind” me up it felt like an eternity.  Even on a 4:1 purchase with a self-tailing winch it’s a very long way when you’re grinding someone who tips the scales right about – let’s just say the size of an NFL linebacker.  Really, I wasn’t built for mast work, but the local rigger has just retired and we’re not sure who to trust yet – so I voted for me.

54 feet off the deck. Start at the top and work down lubricating anything that looks like it moves and checking the rigging for cracks.

Charisma looks pretty small from up here.

Nice view upriver...

...as well as downriver (where we hope to be headed in the days ahead).

And besides the view I got another treat as soon as I reached the top.  It rained.  Fortunately only for about five minutes or so, but my “crew” all ducked down below out of the rain and left me hanging.  I had a few things to check on so not too big a deal.

The other big project today was replacing the two fuses to the fluxgate compass.  They had corroded last season in Fiji and I did a temporary fix using alligator clamps and electrical tape to hold the fuses, but back in NZ I bought some real fuse holders and today finally soldered them in place under the port settee.

No I'm not taking a nap. Look closely and you can see my headlamp zeroed in on the fuses. The harder job was moving all the junk that was sitting here into the quarterberth so we could get under the cushion (and then back again this evening so we had somewhere to sleep).

Ann’s still working on inventing the new rain cover for the cockpit but hit a snag.  She ran out of canvas and it’s Sunday in NZ so we have to wait until tomorrow when the stores are open.  One catch – it’s supposed to rain fairly heavily all day.  Oh well, just another day in pre-voyage prep.