After exiting the Trent-Severn Waterway and arriving at Port Severn there will be no height restrictions until we reach Chicago, some 600 miles away. So, we made a reservation at Bay Port Yachting Center to have our masts raised. With Monday being a national holiday in Canada, and Tuesday’s schedule already filled, we booked our time for the crane on Wednesday. We arrived on Tuesday afternoon and began gathering all the hardware and unstrapping the masts and booms.
After spending several hours searching every cubby hole in the boat, we came to the ugly conclusion that the mast hoops for the mainsail were not onboard. I must have taken them off and stored them with the sails last August or taken them home to soak them in linseed oil. In one of my classic senior moments I have no recollection whatsoever. So, we won’t be able to use the mainsail. But with three other sails, we’ll do just fine.
Our second surprise came on Wednesday morning when we learned we had been bumped off the crane schedule and they could try for Thursday. The weather forecast for Thursday called for thunderstorms and rain all day. Not ideal for a crane to be hoisting masts. After getting the green light from the marina manager to do our own work, we decided to raise the masts ourselves by hand. A bit of a bold endeavor but doable with enough help, maybe 4 or 5 guys at most.
There were 7 or 8 boats at the marina currently doing the Great Loop as well. Loopers are a social crowd and usually gather for docktales around 6 o’clock when there are multiple boats in a marina or town wall. So, I began recruiting help for a 7 o’clock mast raising. When we pulled Stealaway into the work dock, there stood 12 Loopers ready to lend a hand (all power boaters!)
Once all the rigging was untangled and pull ropes attached, we attempted to raise the main. First attempt failed due to bad angle of mast and pull rope. We added another 50’ splice to the pull rope making it 120’ long. With five guys on the boat pushing up on the mast and nine men and women on the pull rope, the mast went up! A huge cheer rang out that was so loud no one heard Todd calling to STOP as his foot was caught in a halyard and he was also being raised, feet first! We extracted Todd and all had a good laugh.
We then used the main mast and halyard to raise the mizzen mast and returned Stealaway to her assigned slip under the cover of darkness. The following evening, the entire group went to dinner together with the first round of cocktails and appetizers provided by Stealaway.
Once again, we were reminded that as awesome as this trip is with the scenery we see and places we visit, it is the people that make it so amazingly special.