Thanks for all the thoughtful responses. At this point in my sailing career (my first mate has pretty much given up on the sport) I am probably not going to be able to address the insufficiency of my autopilot but I can certainly try to better anticipate and prepare for adverse conditions. I do have my reef lines marked and do have guards on my mast lights. The halyard issue I experienced did not involve the mast lights or the Cressman upper choker block fitting but rather the halyard and the messenger line for the spare halyard having somehow gotten twisted ;around each other many times. This had never happened before and I don’t really know how it happened this time but it took me a good half hour back at the dock to straighten it out.
One final takeaway from this thread for me is how many of us are still enjoying our Nonsuches s so far into our golden years. At 74, I am apparently just entering Nonsuch middle age! I wish you all fair winds, following seas and unfouIed halyards.
Oh man! I had a messenger line installed for a second halyard, but before I could add one the small messenger line got sucked up into the halyard block while I was raising the halyard and it ended up being sacrificed in order to regain control of the halyard. Be sure and keep it taut so that doesn’t happen to you. Or better yet, get the second halyard installed.
My wife likes to go for a sail a few times a year, but has no interest in learning to steer the boat or handle the lines. Since my autopilot is unreliable, that makes it a challenge unless someone else is along. So I am lucky to have some sailing friends (one is older than you) who are almost always able to go if I give them a couple of days notice, and I’ve been able to go out almost weekly since March. My health is not great, but I intend to keep sailing as long as I can do it. Hopefully I’ll make it to your age. But I’ll probably never sail solo, so if the time comes that I cannot find people to go with me, it will be time to sell because I’m not interested in owning a boat just for bragging rights.