What goes up...

What goes up must come down. And there I was hanging 11 meters high in the sky.

A friend of mine who owns a sailing boat tried to change one of the lines in the mast, but that did not go the way they wanted it to go. It got stuck, and there for either the mast had to come down, or somebody had to go up. Since the latter option is cheaper and easier somebody had to go up and try to fix the problem. And since I am the slimmest of the group, it was me who had to go up.

I thought I would be nervous and the bus trip to the harbor did not do me any good as well. But once there I was feeling pretty relaxed. We had a lovely day with over 20 degrees Celsius. After a smoke they tied me up in some kind of harness, which looks like swing. Then they started to hoist me, which wasn’t as easy as you thought it would be, by the looks of it. I couldn’t really help them, even though you want to. But slowly I went higher and higher…. And higher. Once you’re half way it still looks all normal and alright, but the time you passed that point it all becomes scarier. Once I reached the top I got to do the repair, which on its own is a difficult task because you’re hanging in a weird position. But I managed to get the job done. I had my mates camera with me to take some pictures and by that time the nerves started to kick in. Really 11 meters in a mast is high! But time for me to slowly come down. Did some cleaning on different parts on my way down and even dropped the can of oil in the water. But the job was down, and after another smoke I managed to relax a bit in the sun. In the afternoon I cleaned the inside of the boat while they were putting the sails in.

Once at my friends place we made some dinner and got to babysit the next doors dog. All in all a lovely day, and next time when somebody needs to go up I will not hesitate. I might just even go up to take some pictures if we are in a nice location to do that.