Another long stint this afternoon, I wanted to get the four shrouds and the forestay done before the varnishing. I became so engrossed in what I was doing that I forgot to take photos of the process.

The five pieces of rigging on the mast.

The lower ends are all thimbles and the black stuff is self-amalgamating tape to cover any sharp edges.

The upper ends are all soft eyes.

The mast stepped with the standing rigging in place.

The shrouds are lashed to the chain plates with lanyards.

The forestay has a bottle screw and a pelican hook. The hook is to allow the forestay to be easily unclipped for lowering the mast. When I sail at sea and the mast will not need to be lowered, then the forestay will also be lashed with a lanyard.

The uppers ends of the rigging. I'd spend just over three hours to this point. By the time I had the varnishing done I'd been working for four. A good day's work.