It was vital that we resolved the fault in the masthead VHF and this meant someone had to get to the top of the mast. We had previously winched our youngest offspring Mark up there (see last year) but that wasn't an option at the moment.
I was very conscious that the Ship's Bosun (my brother Glen) is probably the most physically powerful man in the crew and he'd found it hard going to hoist the lightest of the male crew members up using the mast winch. In an out and out emergency I could probably get Jane up there to cut away a jammed halyard or something of that nature but it would have to be a life or death situation before she'd do it!
I figured there was no way that Tony and Jane, even working together, would be able to winch my deadweight 15 odd stones up the mast. Equally, I knew I was never going to be able to pull myself up on the rigging (I've always had a problem with raising my arms above shoulder level, I've got no strength in my upper body once I do. Weird but it's always been that way)
So Plan A was to use the borrowed mast ladder which hoists up the mainsail luff groove. The only problem was that it would'nt hoist up our luff slot. Even after we'd run a silicon soaked rag up the groove several times to clean and lubricate it, the bullets on the ladder were just a fraction too big and tight in the slot.
That left us with Plan B.
Having seen Mark struggle at times with a tendency to slide out of our bosuns chair, I'd purchased a fall arrest harness from Toolstation (note: if you decide to follow my example, make sure you get the one with the front attachment loops as well as the rear D ring). I planned to use this in conjunction with the chair.
I'd also purchased several meters of 6mm braided cord. It doesn't really matter what it is as long as it's low stretch and significantly smaller than the halyard size. That actually was a bit of an issue for us as our halyards are only 8mm but it turned out OK ...
I strapped myself into the fall arrest harness and then happily found that the bosun's chair would neatly clip onto the same carabiner as the front loops on the harness. This proved an extremely comfortable and secure setup.
With the main halyard was attached to the front carabiner and the spinnaker halyard rigged temporarily back to the opposite set of clutches and attached to the dorsal D-ring as a backup safety we had Tony on the task of hoisting me up and Jane on the job of keeping me from making a mess of the deck if the main gear failed.
The jib halyard had been pressed into service as a temporary topping lift allowing the topping lift to be rigged back to the mast foot and tensioned up as much as possible as a climbing line
Using the 6mm cord, I'd dredged the memories of my brief climbing experience in my dim and distant youth (and then cheated by looking it up online!) and made up a prussik loop with two foot loops. This was made up onto the topping lift..
Using this I could stand up to take my weight off the harness / chair allowing Tony to easily recover the slack. Slide the prussik up another foot and repeat. It wasn't rapid but it was effective, safe and surprisingly easy.
Removing the old antenna, the likely source of the problem seemed obvious. The poor quality bullet connection that is used on cheap VHF antennas was badly corroded.
I now had a problem though. It proved totally impossible to solder a PL259 plug to the antenna cable. The soldering iron wouldn't stay hot enough for long enough - I could get it up to working temperature holding it in the kit bag out of the breeze but as soon as it was removed it lost heat instantly. Trying to rig the bag around the cable wasn't working either.
To solve the issue, Tony removed one of the push fit solder-less PL259 plugs off my VSWR meter patch lead and sent that aloft. It went on seemingly OK although I had my doubts. It was but the work of moments to bolt on the Metz antenna we'd removed from the stern rail, where it had been serving as the AIS aerial, and connect it up.
With the joint taped up, the last thing I did before descending was to give the Wind Instrument head a serious dose of silicon lubricant spray.
Coming down was easy. Tony lowered me without difficulty with four turns of the halyard on the winch drum. It would have been quicker if I'd discarded the prussik loop but I kept it in place and slid it down the topping lift as I went as a backup. The spinny halyard caught up on a diverter block which was a nuisance but ascending back up a foot or so allowed me to clear it.
Back on deck I was very happy to relax with a coffee and a cigar! I'd been up the mast for getting on for two hours altogether and whilst it had never been unpleasant and I'd felt safe and comfortable throughout I wasn't sorry to get back down!
Even more pleasing was to get a response from Thames Coastguard that we were now loud and clear on both the Southend and Bradwell aerials. That's a first! (Over the weekend, we'd hear Ostend for the first time ever so even before it failed completely the old antenna was nowhere near as effective)
The last job of the day was to fit the new AIS aerial to the stern rail and connect it up.
Then it was time to get under way for the first time since last November!
We'd been invited to join the crew of Laurin for takeaway curry so we made haste downriver under motor (the wind, such as it was, was due wrong) and into an overnight visitor berth in Burnham Yacht Harbour.
Another Co-op raid was required (we kept on running out of things all trip which is unusual, we're normally better organised!) and then a very pleasant evening of good food, fine beer and excellent company ensued.
The only looming fly in the ointment was a rather less than wonderful weather forecast but more of that tomorrow ...
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