Catskills New York and Hop-O-Nose Marina

It's Monday morning and we are just about ready to take the mast down. Yesterday was not much of a day. It rained very hard all night the rained a little all day. 

First we got the sails off. This is not as easy as it sounds. Folding them on the deck is not easy and did try our patience. When it came to the jib we gave up and put it on the dock. This was still no good so we got it up the ramp to the shore. The shore is about 10 feet up. We got it folded and in the bag. Now we had to get it back down the ramp and on the boat. We rolled it down the ramp but did not get it on the boat.

Then we had to get the frames up. After a little struggle we got the forward frame up and secured. Then the Bimini had to come down. This in itself is not so bad with two helpers, Trish and I. But and it seems we always have a but. One of the two solar panel connectors would not un plug. We worked on it for about an hour then gave up ad disconnected all the other connectors.

We got the aft frame up. We could not tie it off at the aft end because we use the same pin as the back stay. The center frame is ready to go up, but first the boom vang has to come off. Trish and I tried but could not get it loose. Then we got most of the lines through to the mast. We were wet at the end of the day. We were as ready as we could be.

This morning I disconnected all the wires going up the mast except for the TV. As we wait for the crane operators to come we are watching Kelly and Michael. Once the mast is down we have to secure the mast to the frame then tie it fore and aft so as it stays in place. We are pretty sure we will be here tonight. Tomorrow we will go the 35 nautical miles to Waterford.

The Catskills