Replacing the rope was anything but simple. The rope ran through the mast, through guides to the stoppers, ending at the helm. Since the rope had broken, it had fallen inside the mast, and we could no longer retrieve it from the top.
Our plan was to climb to the top of the mast using the forward halyard and remove everything connected to the mainsail. Then, I would take a spare rope and feed it down through the mast while Damjan caught it below. After that, I would descend.
Then, we needed to shorten the mainsail rope because, luckily, we still had some length to work with. We had to create a new loop that needed to be spliced so that everything would function smoothly without catching. All in all, this wasn’t easy, especially considering we’d never done it before.
So, I would be making multiple trips up the mast each day for the next few days. If nothing else, the view from up there was absolutely fantastic.
On one of my trips up, while I was trying to attach the shackle to the mast, some idiot started driving a speedboat back and forth, creating waves that rocked the boat so violently that I was thrown from side to side at the top of the mast. At one point, I literally had to hug the mast to stop myself from being smashed against it. We’d encountered similar characters before, but they hadn’t created waves nearly this bad.
Despite the challenges, we managed to finish everything and make the repairs before the end of the year, so we entered the new year fully prepared for our journey. How long the rope would hold, we didn’t know. According to our estimate, we could shorten it two more times before we would have to buy a new one. We needed to figure out how to prevent this rope damage during future voyages.
And …. Happy New Year!!!!