But she was banging! And, I’ll tell you, with sailing, if you’re not out there screwing up and learning from your mistakes, then you’re not really sailing. We can just hoist the staysail and keep on cruising.” Except that we had taken down the forestay for the staysail. When Jenny had her crack-induced fall-out and busted, we said the exact same thing to ourselves. Yeah, I can just imagine what you’re thinking (and saying to yourself with an imaginary pat on our heads): “Poor little novice sailors. For that reason we decided to take her out when I had to climb the mast the first time to get the main halyard down.

Well, the darn thing banged around like a banshee the first week of the trip and drove us crazy. You’ll love this … So, if you recall, our inner forestay busted during our initial Gulf Crossing when we were sailing the boat back from Punta Gorda, FL home to Pensacola, FL and we had a new one put in as part of our Keys preparations. We also put the inner forestay back in on the way down. I also pulled off what looked like some marred black plastic at the top of the foil on the forestay. But, we were still missing some bearings, so repairs were certainly in order. He said it seemed the sir-clip (aka c-clip) had just popped off, which caused the shackle to come apart, allowing the swivel part to fall, and the halyard piece to remain at the top of the mast. I shimmied it down and Phillip inspected it down on the deck. Much like the piece of the shackle that had come down (the swivel portion), the “piece that broke” (the part that connects to the Jenny halyard), it didn’t seem to have any obvious defect. NOT: “Man what a great climber you are, Annie.” “Wow, you look like a real pro up there, Annie.” “Go ahead, take all the time you need up there, Annie.” “What about the piece that broke?” he says. What I find incredibly entertaining about this clip, though, is while I’m up there is Phillip’s one-line dialog: “What about the piece that broke?” I mean, I’m up there risking life and limb climbing this mast (what seems like day after day on our sailing adventure) and the one time I try and take thirty seconds to capture it on film, Phillip is still all business. As part of our preparations for the Keys, we had replaced the old main line with new VPC hybrid braid and what a difference! I don’t think she stretched one bit while hoisting my heavy bottom all the way to the top. It was a nice, easy ride using the main halyard.

Thankfully, I made it up this time without any issue. Such a great shot! I love the view of this boat from up top.

In light of the vastly improved conditions, I took some time this time to get some footage! I give you … the view from up top! And, having the boat tied securely to a mooring ball while I ascended (as opposed to swaying like a treetop in the wind mid-sea) made the climb infinitely more comfortable. I think we stretched her three times her length last time. (Yes, that’s a word – quite the fitting one here). That thing scared the Bejeesus out of me. Thankfully, this time we were able to use the main halyard to raise me, which is faaarrr more reliable that the spinnaker halyard we had to use last time to retrieve the main halyard. Pete red on Sunday night, Captain was quick to wake on Monday morning and put this crew to work! After we let our hair down and painted St.

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