It's a sailboat!

Finally! We stepped the mast today and all went well. Mostly. This is an ugly process. I had help from a guy here at the Boat Club and another guy who had just come in yesterday on an old Ericson. I spent the rest of the day getting all the junk off the boat that was for holding the mast while we motored through the canals and scrubbing the bejeezus out of it. Amazing how dirty a boat can get travelling through the canals and all those stinking locks!

One down point - I was working in the few inches between the mast and the deckwhile the mast is hanging from the crane to re-connect the wires for radio, wind instrument, and lights. OK, I'm working there and I'm thinking it is the knot that I tied that is keeping this mast from slicing off my fingers. I hurried. I thought I had it but alas we have no electronic wind instrument at the moment. The only fix is to lift the mast again and I'M NOT! Oh well...Nelson didn't have no stinking, fancy pantsy wind instrument and look what he did! (He defeated the French (HA, that's so hard to do) at Trafalger).

Tomorrow, I'll continue to clean and re-organize the boat now that it is a sailboat again and I no longer have 4 2 x 6's on board to take up space. I'm looking forward to the trip down the Hudson and am gaining information from the local natives (who no longer accept beads for beer!) about anchoring and so forth.