The crane to remove our mast arrived this morning at around 0900. An intense storm was brewing and I asked if they were still going to remove the mast. I was concerned about the possibility of lightning. One of the workers, Colin, laughed and said that they rarely see lightning and if it starts raining, they would just sit out the passing storm and restart their work once it passed. Soon after saying that, there was a very visible lightning strike. Fortunately, it was downwind of us so the workers decided to continue their work. It took about an hour but they were able to remove our mast and gently place it on a mast rack which would allow them to work on it. I took some photos of the operation and will post them when I get a chance.

Once the mast was down and secured, the skies opened up and it started raining. The work crew scattered but once the downpour eased to just a light rain they returned to Leu Cat to work on replacing our martingale cable. The martingale cable is a thick stainless steel cable to connects the two bows, preventing the hulls from ripping apart from the bridgedeck. It runs over the dolphin striker, which is the stainless steel “U” shape device that puts a downward force to the martingale cable and helps balance the forces generated by the headstay and the mast. You will see it in the photos that I hope to post in a day or so.

The new martingale cable was installed right before lunch so we were all set to return to Simpson Bay Marina. However, before we could go, another wave of the storm blew in. After lunch, the storm had moved on and so did we. By 1400 we were snug as a bug in a rug, tied up back at the Simpson Bay Marina. It felt nice to be back with great Internet, fewer mosquitos and great service.
Tomorrow, I will post the continuing photos of the weather patterns across the North Atlantic as we approach May 13th. I will also compare the results of different models so you can get a feel of some of the things I am looking at as I assess the weather. I will also post some photos of the 500 mbar (about 50,000 feet in altitude) weather patterns. This is where the Jet Stream is located and it will show you why the North Atlantic is so unstable right now.