Our halyard…the line at the top of our sailboat mast was stuck.
One of us needed to be hoisted up, alongside the mast, in the bosun’s chair to determine the problem and fix it. “Boaty” was I and very comfortable on the water. Grew up on boats, power boats from antique to speed and we also had a little Sunfish sailboat. However, I was just learning how to sail on larger sailboats. And this is a subject for another blog post that I’ve been putting off…sailors…jeesh.
Anyway, back to my thighs, I mean the bosun’s chair.
This is the against the odds part…you see I was nominated as the person most likely to be easily hoisted up the mast to snap a few photos and bring them back down so he could figure out what the problem was. Or, better yet, while I’m up there, fix the problem. Yeah right. He was so concerned for my safety and a bit nervous (this I didn’t pick up on) that when I was ready to come on back down, he forgot to release the clutch that holds the line in place…meaning unable to bring me down and he didn’t know why.
Now he thinks the bosun’s chair is stuck. So he sends up another halyard line, on another winch (I sure hope someone out there knows what I’m talking about) for me to clip into on the chair so he can bring me down on that line. Oi. We politely and calmly shout our conversation to each other since we’re not near to each other and need to hear these important instructions and responses. This means I have to first clip into the new line and un-clip from the other one…never mind just know it was dangerous if you’re me. Totally unnecessary of course but we don’t know this yet. I clip, un-clip, and whatever.
A nice person swims over from the sailboat near to us asking, “Is everything ok?”
My husband a badass sailor, used to race, can fix an engine or any mechanical problem like nobody’s business. He rarely needs to write a check to have someone else make a repair to our boat. The man is very creative and full of good solutions. Of course, he answers the man’s questions with, “Thanks, everything’s fine” as the bosun’s chair is now digging into the underside of my thighs. I wave happily to the nice person. Yup the @#!&* chair experience is wearing on me now but I’m in love and life is good. Wave, smile, no worries here.
Against all odds I return to lower altitudes and he tells me he realized he forgot to release the clutch, “oops I guess I was a bit nervous having you up there”, he says. He gets big points for telling me he was so nervous and forgot to do something kinda basic. Do you see why I married this man? The circulation returns to my legs and we settle down to cook and watch the stars before heading back the next day.
As I’m writing this he comes into my office to show me a bluebird box he just made. God, I love this man.