View from the top
With most of our pre-cruise work completed on Island Bound , it was time to more thoroughly inspect the rig. This of course means going up the stick if the mast is stepped. If you're a sailor, sooner or later you'll need to make a trip to the top of the mast, either for inspections or repairs. Our (first) time is now! The goal of the ascent was to retape the speader boots, install a portside flagline and inspect the shrouds, stays and sail track. We used our climbing harness (Black Diamond Alpine BOD) instead of a bosun's chair. The main halyard was used as the primary uplift and one of our two wire-to-rope headsail halyards was the back-up. A bowline knot was used to secure the main halyard to the harness, instead of using the shackle. The shackle was also connected as a precaution. We had to use the shackle on the back-up (genoa halyard) because it's wire-to-rope and can not be knotted. The main halyard was lead to a two-speed cockpit winch via a snatch block