If the Top Climber system had not worked, there are two other ways to get to the top of the mast. The same 7/16" line could pull up a block and tackle to which a bosuns chair is attached. A person in the chair can hoist himself and secure the line to the chair at the proper elevation. Any 50ish man who has used this system says it will tend to cramp the hands and certainly is not as easy to use as it once was. However, a person on deck could assist with the pulling and then secure the line to a deck cleat. The last option is to use the natives of the Pacific as inspiration and simply shinny the mast as it were a coconut palm while wearing a harness. At the top, the tether attached to the harness would be wrapped over the top of the mast and quickly made fast. Hanging there, the lines and pulley necessary for a bosuns chair could be secured before making a decent. This latter method is made even more difficult as hanging in mid air, ones own body weight gradually crushes deeper against the harness straps making movement and breathing difficult. Safe working time is short. While I was aloft on the Top Climber, Rebecca did what she could to steady lines to keep me from swinging and banging so hard against the rigging.

With access to the mast top, I was able only then to see a single bolt head from the running pole slide was all that the rope was truly resting on. A slip off that finger hold and I would have to grab something quickly as my support line would slide down the broken stay, over the spreader and into the ocean. There was little alternative but to stay focused and keep working while keeping constant pressure on the support line. I continued to drop all unnecessary wire stays and salvable electrical fitting from the mast to Rebecca's waiting hands below. Spare lines from the cockpit locker were wrapped, woven and tied around the stump top to form head stays and back stays and shrouds. From three separate looped lines, 3 blocks were shackled and halyard lines rove. My work aloft, for this rocking anchorage anyway, was complete and I inched my way down with a headache and a several red scrapes and dings.

The first item to be raised on a halyard was the emergency Single Side Band antenna. Ours is a 1/8" stainless steel wire, insulated on each end with plastic thimbles and tied with lines to the stern and bow pulpit. Plastic water hose was slid to the middle so when raised, the wire would be insulated from contact with the mast. The minimum length for an emergency antenna is 23 feet, the longer the better. Originally intended to go up a masthead halyard, our antenna is 46' long. GTO-15 wire is the most prescribed wire for connecting the antenna to the antenna tuner but in our case the largest core wire we had on the boat was used. Our emergency antenna worked equally, if not better than the antenna which came down with the rigging. Over the weeks ahead, we would keep in touch with cruisers nets and to begin organizing the repairs of our boat.