The masts are back up!

Well, we took the main mast down to fix some bothersome noises due to wiring problems inside the mast and ended up getting in much deeper than we planned. The noise turned out to be a loose wire conduit that was banging around and which was easily fixed. After finishing that, Chris, working on the boat next to Starshine in the yard asked if I was going to paint the mast while it was down. After thinking about it, seeing how bad the paint job was and talking to Chris about helping me I decided to go for it. I spent a day taking all the hardware and rigging off the mast and then spent several days sanding. Part way through the process, I realized how bad the paint job really was and decided if I was going to do the main mast then I should really do the mizzen and the two booms as well. So I got the crane to come and take down the mizzen and started the whole process of removing the hardware and sanding on that mast. Once the sanding was done, Gail and I spent several days priming and sanding and priming and sanding (2 coats) both masts. After that I found Chris (he had long since moved on to other jobs on other boats) and had him come back and help me put on 3 coats of Awlgrip on the two masts (again, with lots more sanding between coats) and I was almost there. All that was left was several days of re-attaching all the hardware, repairing and/or replacing the halyards and re-attaching all the rod rigging. In the mean time, Gail was busy making new sail covers for the main, mizzen and staysail. The main and mizzen covers are stack packs built using the very informative how-to video from Sailrite. Finally, the big day arrived and the crane showed up to re-step both masts. I made sure to put a 2013 silver dollar under the main mast and an Australian silver 3 pence coin (from my birth year) under the mizzen mast. While the whole process took much more time and effort (and money) than I expected, the results are awesome. Now to finish all the other projects I have already started - replacing the steering cable, repairing and re-bedding all the thru-hulls, replacing the cutlass bearing, repacking the stuffing box and refinishing all the teak. Not to mention the projects I haven't started yet - adding the wind vane and the water maker, painting the bottom and on and on ...