The ship I am sailing on, the Picton Castle (see www.picton-castle.com), is a tall ship. The top of the rigging is about 10 stories above the water. Not only is it a long way up, but once the ship leaves the dock, it becomes much less stable. So, going aloft is not for the faint of heart.
About a week ago, while still tied up at the dock, we had an "up and over" climbing exercise in which we climbed to a platform about 1/3 of the way up the mast, crossed over the platform and climbed down the other side. This may sound easy, however, shortly before reaching the platform you have to climb a few rungs that are angled out away from the mast in order to reach the edge of the platform. The first time doing this can be a bit unnerving.
In addition to climbing up the mast, we also have to go out on the yardarms to work with the sails. So our second climbing drill was to go up to the lowest yardarm and "lay on" (step onto) the wire footrope that runs under the yardarm. This was all done under calm conditions with experienced crew positioned at strategic points to help us along. They assured us that it was normal to feel a bit nervous the first time going aloft. And I did.
It was another week before I took my first turn at working aloft. I declined working on the upper yardarms until I had an opportunity to work on the lowest one, which is at least 30 feet above the deck. Most of the sails bent on had been higher aloft. Finally, on Tuesday I had an opportunity to help bend on the Fore Course sail which hangs from the lowest yardarm on the foremast. It turned out to be not as scary as I had thought it could be.
We were up there about an hour and a half. While we are working aloft we wear a harness and clip on to the yardarm. First the sail was hoisted aloft using a block and tackle. Then the earrings of the sail had to be attached to the yardarm...which involved a lot of waiting on my part since that was taking place at the outboard ends of the yard, and I was closer to the mast. Finally, we centered the sail and bent it on with rope seizings. It was a huge learning experience on many levels, including stretching beyond my comfort zone and discovering that it was okay.
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