September 17th, 2013

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Tuesday. Sept 17. Mast down. A possible plan “C” is rising.

Tuesday, September 17th, 2013

Between rain showers the mast is now resting well on “Fleetwood”. I am back at the yard where I replaced the deck. Hans de Boer, the yard owner is an expert aluminum welder. I expect that the spreader repair will be successful. The below picture is of the spreader bar and the spreader. Is there any one who might be able to direct me to the manufacturer of this type of spreader bar?

The mast was made by Yacht Riggers in Seattle ( Tom Huckle??) in 1983, but they are history. The Catalinas have a similar spreader bar. I took all the dimensions today.

Apparently there is a two week weather window in the prospect that could possible get me to Portugal by the Atlantic after all. It will all depend on the mast repairs and getting the AIS to work. I ordered a Samsung Android tablet with GPS which I hope will get me to the AIS and Navionics charts. I did get the SailMail hooked up. If I end up on the French river/canal route I will be much better set up carrying the mast than I was in 2010 on the trip to the Black Sea. After 300 plus locks the next 200 plus will be piece of cake.