I’d spoken with the local rigging shop, Richardson’s Rigging, to get a rigging inspection done before heading out with the boat and although he was supposed to have done the inspection the day before he’d used the calm conditions to finish another job and he arrived in the morning hours with his assistant and proceeded to go up the mast in a comfortable looking bosun’s chair and check out my standing rigging. After a long time aloft (while I was working in air-conditioned comfort below decks to get the boat ready) he came down and informed me that the D3’s needed replacing. Those are the 3rd cross-spaced supporting wires between the mast and spreaders. I asked him if it could wait until the end of the sailing season and he hesitated and finally said that “Yes, you can do it when you return” but I thought about it for a while and realized that it is stupid to hire a professional for his opinion and then proceed to ignore it and asked him if he could replace the D3s. He gave me a rough estimate for the cost and said he could get me off the dock the following Wednesday and I agreed to the deal. I still had work to do aboard and probably wouldn’t have been able to leave until Tuesday anyway.
I worked until after dark and then headed to Peg Legs after a shower for some happy hour drinks and their tasty pizza. Kyle the bartender was still there and actually remembered me (probably because I’m such a bad tipper and recidivist) and we chatted for a bit before I got to dive into my pizza.