We motored up to Lefkas and tied up on the town quay at lunchtime on Monday. Waypoint were booked to inspect the mast on Tuesday, but arrived late Monday afternoon. Nik stood on the quay, looking up, “You’re going to need a new mast.”
“Really?” We ask. “Almost certainly. We’ll see when we take it down.” A new mast may not be identical to the current one – modern masts have different spreader fixings from ours, so the standing rigging may have to be modified. Shortening it is easy, but if it needs to be longer we’ll need some new bits. We know Nik from last year when we had all the standing rigging replaced, as required by our insurance company. We all agree it would be a shame if some of it had to be replaced again.
Waypoint will arrange the crane with Cleopatra for 2 days after our lift out on 16 October.
Nik also points out that the top section of the Genoa furling is bent. This can be replaced, but the forestay may be damaged.
Until then, no sailing and no motoring into swells or choppy sea. Hmm, we’ll need to pick our time for motoring up to Preveza, which is against the prevailing wind and current. We’re not exactly reassured, but we reason that Nik would have told us if we weren’t safe to go with the mast up. We trust him.