Rigging Ready

Yesterday was a bad day, the weather was rubbish, a strong breeze blowing up the river, thick cloud all day and frequent heavy showers. I didn’t do a fat lot other than cycle up to the village for a few supplies and then sit below studying the plans, thinking about all the work left to do and spending more money online ordering up essential bits and pieces. The phone rang late afternoon, it was the riggers in Plymouth to tell me that my standing rigging was ready, They’d originally said it would be next week at the earliest so it was a nice surprise. I decided to head into Plymouth this morning and pick it up.

As Gail has the car up country I biked it a couple of miles down the lane to Bere Ferrers and caught the train into town. It’s the first time I’ve been on a train in years and it was fun. There’s a railway bridge over the river Tavy which makes the route far shorter than driving and it’s a scenic route, you also get good views of the Naval Dockyard at Devonport.

It was a twenty minute walk down to the riggers and a longer one back to the station. I’d kind of underestimated how heavy 100m of 6mm stainless wire plus fittings is and I’ll be aching tomorrow! At least back at Bere Ferrers I was able to hook the lot over the handlebars and push/freewheel my way back to the yard.

I spent the afternoon on deck marking up the eight shrouds and forestay then greasing and adding the protective PVC pipe to the mast loops. While I was doing it the tide came in at it’s highest since ‘Gleda’ went in the mud, I thought she might float but no. I’m beginning to wonder if she’s stuck! For a while there though she looked like she was afloat. There’s another couple of feet of tide to go yet before it peaks so I’m hoping Thursday will be the day, we’ll see.

Here’s a couple of photos of the standing rigging, it’s all ready to go onto the mast but I have to sort out the nav lights, wiring, windex and mast feet yet, plus the mast need a bit more paint. The yard crane is available Friday but if I’m not ready it’ll be Wednesday next week so I’m going to crack on tomorrow.