Wind E 5-8 knots, Course NE, Speed 2 knots, Position: 00° 53 S, 02° 15 W

Soanya's View:
When Reid said he was going to paint the bowsprit today, it was clearly an important step. Painting meant finishing touches and the bowsprit repairs which had been on our minds so constantly for the past three months was finally coming to an endpoint.  It still had to be carefully observed, but there wasn't much more we could do for it now.  By lunch time, Reid had all the surfaces prepped and ready for paint.  He said it was going to be a big job, so I offered to help. 

“You want to paint?” he asked surprised, though why he should act surprised is beyond me.  I've been painting various things on the schooner for at least three years now.  Some things I remember painting have weathered to the point where they need another paint job. 

“You need some old clothes.” He said.  Okay.

“Gloves.”  Okay. 

“Safety harness.” 

Safety harness?  Well maybe he wanted me to be extra safe up there. Okay. 

“And don't forget the video and still camera.”  Did he have to make a production out of this? I was starting to feel a little uneasy, but I got everything together and went up to the bowsprit ready to paint.

“Okay, I'm going to use the roller where I can and you're going to get the places I missed with the paint brush. Here I go.”  Reid said as he stepped up and applied black to the tip of the bowsprit. Then he gets down and wants me to harness myself on, climb outside of the lifelines and sit on a piece of metal jutting out into nothingness and paint.  I got harnessed up, but there was no way I was going outside the lifelines onto that little metal pipe there.  I held on to a head stay with one hand in a death grip and in the other Reid puts a paint brush. I stare at him frozen.  He didn't really expect me to do this did he?  The sea was not too far down, I could see it between my feet.  Two little metal lines were keeping me from tumbling backwards (And of course the harness, but I wasn't thinking about that).  “Stay right there, let me get a picture.”  I wasn't going anywhere.  You could have taken a perfect daguerreotype (old time photo process that you had to sit perfectly still for some minutes for one picture) of me at that moment.  He takes his pictures and then says,  “Okay, okay. You're not comfortable up there.  I'll put you to work back here.”  I was much relieved.  Did I look like a daredevil?  Have I ever given any indication that I needed an adrenaline rush?

So I painted the back part of the bowsprit including the Samson post and the pieces of wood that was reinforcing the tiny cracks in the deck.  By late afternoon the job was done and looked great. A nd Reid was happy he had my help, because it would have taken him another hour or two of work on his own.

Reid and Soanya