This morning the mast came down aided by John from the Belleville boat. Bernie, the guy who took the mast down was cool calm and collected. He said our mast stands were the best he had even seen, and he’s done this for years. So kudos to Peter Cohrs who designed them. Bob wanted the the top of the mast to be at the back but Bernie was hesitant to turn it around as the winds were really picking up – a mistake on our part that we didn’t insist, more on that shortly. We then helped with the Belleville boat.
We left the marina around 12pm and proceeded to the first lock where we lost our lock virginity and our mast light. The front of the mast hit the lock wall and off came the mast light so our first lock experience was not a happy one. Bob called Catalina and they are shipping a new unit to Tristan’s work in Cape Cod and he’ll either personally deliver it or send it to the Marina where the mast is going back up. It would be great to see him if he can get the time off work to meet us.
We tied up at a wall just past the lock, ran a few errands in town and chilled for the afternoon. The forecast is for lots of rain in the morning so we’ll play our departure time by ear.