Today started out chilly again, but not as cold as it's been. As the day went on it got warmer until by noon it was pretty nice. You could be outside with only three or four layers on, and no gloves. That's a great improvement, and the weather was good enough that we decided to tackle some boat work.

Bud had bought a radar reflector while I was in Detroit, but it wasn't installed yet. We didn't have a good way to get it up high enough on the backstay to be effective, so we decided to hang it. Bud had made a bridal out of light line so it could be hung from the halyard where we fly our burgees. The only problem is that the line needs to be led through a second pulley, so there's room for the reflector, which is round (more or less) and about 16 inches in diameter. So we needed to install a second pulley on our spreader (one of the arms that sticks out from the mast that the metal cables, or in our case rods, that hold the mast in place hook to).

In short, some one had to go part way up the mast, and that is my job. It's Bud's job to hoist me up there. So we hooked up the boatswain's chair and up I went. I used to be pretty nervous going up, and we used to do this with one or two other people to help. We've had to do it on our own, so we have a routine that I feel pretty comfortable with. I tie two sail halyards to the chair, one is the main lift line and the second is the safety line. Bud puts the main line on a winch on the mast and leads the second line to a cleat, also on the mast. He then winches me up about 5 feet at a time, and then tightens and re-cleats the safety line. That way, if either line breaks I'll only fall about 5 feet. That's the theory anyway.

Going up is not a problem for me. Being up high is not a problem either. What I worry about is dropping things. Today I wasn't working that high up, but I needed to attach the second pulley near the outer end of the spreader. That meant I had to work away from the mast and couldn't use my legs on the mast to hold the chair steady. That in turn meant that I had to pretty much do everything with one hand, while hanging on to the spreader with the other. It took a little doing but in the end I got the holes drilled, the washers in place and the pulley riveted to the spreader, and thankfully, I didn't drop anything. I added a picture of our new radar reflector installation to the gallery.

Once the radar reflector was up, we even spent some time just sitting in the cockpit, enjoying the sun. I could get used to that! The day ended with a nice sunset, and I added a picture to the gallery of the sun setting across the Ashley River and the marina.