74.4 Feet in the Air. My New Record
I was called to the Brunswick Landing Marina to investigate a failed Raymarine wind transducer. What I found was an immaculate 2 year old 56 foot Oyster yacht. This boat has to be seen in person to fully appreciate her, though Oyster’s website is a good start. (You should buy one if you have a spare $2.5 million laying around!)
Though the yacht is owned by a couple from Miami, they chose to have it put in a slip here due to our reputation of being a hurricane hole. It’s been here a few weeks, which was perfect timing to avoid Tropical Storm Fay.
With the wind fairly calm and the sun mostly covered by clouds, I picked a good time to get closer to the heavens. David, the boat captain, prepared my ascent up the 74.4 foot mast by conveniently jamming a sheet in the Lewmar 48 electric winch and bending the self tailing arm into both the upper and lower plates. With no quick access to blocks that might bring the sheet to port for the larger electric winch, David decided to pull my 180 pound butt up the mast with the manual winch.
I’ve made a regular habit of taking pictures from the top of the mast. My Treo 650 doesn’t take the best photos, but I doubt I would be able to justify the risk of fatal damage to my wife’s digital Canon Rebel. Though I failed to get a shot showing myself to be at the highest point in the marina, you can still get an idea of the height from the shots straight down and overlooking HWY 341:
What’s the highest point you’ve ascended to, not counting air travel?
