Boats have masts primarily to hang the sails on but there is a tendency to put other things up there too, like wind vanes and lights. When something goes wrong aloft someone has to go up and fix it. In a crewed boat there is a tendency, at this stage, for people to hang back waiting for someone else to volunteer a bit like the opening of an episode of "The Apprentice". In fact the ascent is not difficult when there is some muscle available to do the hoisting. Singlehanded sailors have to find some way to get up there under their own steam and adopt various ploys. Dame Ellen McArthur's boat is so big that she is apparently able to climb up the sliding shackles which connect the mainsail to the mast. I know she took a photo from up there looking down on her boat, but then she is not like ordinary mortal sailors, especially ones like me with rather too much mileage on the clock.

Being still in boating civilisation, I was able to delegate the job today by manouvring the boat under the yard crane which then hoisted Steve in a bosun's chair to unsort a tangle. I think he got the job because he is the youngest, he is certainly the lightest. The photo is from last year on another boat. The victim this time was also chosen for his youth (I think).