Canet, France
October 20
Pacific Bliss is no Longer Mastless!
By Lois Joy  

 

 

Today at 4:00 PM Pacific Bliss finally began its transition from a "stinkpotter" to a real sailboat. Well, she doesn't have sails yet, but she does have her mast--finally!  It has been a long wait for this mast, with many promises and disappointments.  It turned out that the when we celebrated the arrival of the mast delivered from the manufacturer on Tuesday evening, we were premature.  On Wednesday, we arrived at Catana to hear that the mast that had been delivered was not even a Catana mast--let alone ours!  That was the fourth date we had been given that had been missed, so we had a very down day.

So when the mast was actually put on, it became a big deal.  Here we are toasting to the mast (champagne courtesy of Catana) and the beginning of the commissioning process, which (they say) will begin on Monday.

The installation was quite the process, as the following photo sequence shows:

First, the mast is rigged.

Rigging the mast

Here lies the mast along the manufacturing building--rigged and waiting.

After the crane arrives from Perpignan, the workers wheel the mast toward the dock to which Pacific Bliss has been temporarily moved.

Pierre, our skipper, and Tanguy attaching the mast to the crane.

Then mast is attached to the crane, pulled high over Pacific Bliss, lowered into place, and fastened to the deck.

Easy does it!

Attaching the mast to the hull.

Getting it perfect, as the sun sets.

Then Charlotte gets into the bosun's chair, ready for action.

The workers crank the winch to lift her high, on a windy day, to unhook the mast from the crane. 

Pierre backs Pacific Bliss back up to our slip at the Catana owner's dock and it's party time.

 


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