Against the grain

I probably have to take responsibility for sailing without a masthead aerial radio all this summer.

The thing with non-sailing spouses (NSSs) is this: you’re used to them being intelligent and competent in normal life, and it really goes against the grain to treat them like total rookies the minute they get on a boat, with constant explanations of the obvious, and checking their every move.

Last autumn, at mast-off time, I’d pulled’s official electronics expert, to pull them out on deck, wind them up and secure them to the mast, while I leapt about unscrewing bottle screws. I did, as skipper, give a quick look over and approved their neatness. What I didn’t clock, which makes it my fault, was that he’d taped them very thoroughly, not to the mast itself, but to the metal loops on the deck on each side. When the mast went upwards there was a pause, then a ‘spang’, and the radio aerial cable broke.