We know, we know.  We’ve been slacking a bit on the blog writing. Rest assured though, we’ve been far from slacking when it comes to boat projects down here.  The big item at the very top of our “To-Do” list is, “Replace Necessary Standing Rigging”.  Since prudent seamanship tells us that we shouldn’t go sailing until this is done, we’re trying to accomplish this asap.  It’s hard to be on the water and NOT go sailing.  Really hard.

The steps we outlined are as follows:
1)  Climb Mast:  We first needed to climb the mast to assess the rest of the standing rigging, as the rigging survey we paid for wasn’t worth the paper it was printed on. We also needed to measure the wires and the terminal hardware in order to place an order.
2)  Order New Standing Rigging:  After much back and forth, we’ve decided to replace ALL of the standing rigging. This is the smart thing to do for Selkie…but unfortunately it’s pretty hard on the cruising kitty.  We may be cutting the trip a bit short if we can’t cut some corners elsewhere, but we’ll sleep a bit better at night.
3)  Pick up Standing Rigging:  This may necessitate a drive back up to Arizona next week.  We’re not excited about that adventure, but it may be the only way to get that valuable shipment from point A to point B in a timely manner.
4)  Install Rigging:  We plan to replace the stays and shrouds one at a time to allow us to leave the mast up.  It will be slow and tedious…

So back to that mast climbing…. This is our first attempt at both the GoPro video camera, which was a great wedding present from Mark’s family (thanks Mike and Judi!), and editing a video.  We’ll get better – we promise!  Enjoy the first take!

**Email followers and those who don’t see the video may have to click here to watch – it’s worth it!**

[tube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nDTTQa8fzKs[/tube]

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