Boca Chica to Marathon

Okay, the standing rigging on TANGO is rotten with rust.  Sort of expected that with a 29 year-old rig in salt water.
I asked Keys Rigging to fit a new furler and when Curt Johnson suggested an inspection first, I readily agreed.  Curt and his partner began the inspection at deck level and after finding several cracked fittings at the deck began climbing and inspecting.  Curt got to the lower spreaders, found several more cracks and decided he wouldn't go higher and that the rigging needed replacements, not repairs.   He braced the rig with my jib halyard down the starboard spreaders and relieved the strain aft using the main halyard.  He also cautioned against sailing the boat and being careful with the weather while motoring to Marathon.
I asked my dock-mate, Jon Siewers, to go with me.  We motored out of BCM and although the speed dropped as low as 2.8 knots in the counter-current in the Hawk Channel, we had an uneventful trip until near the west end of the 7-mile Bridge when we heard a loud bang.  It sounded like a door slamming around, and indeed, the door had come undone and was banging in the sloppy waves caused by the tidal rip near the Moser Channel.
Then we found the broken Windex on the starboard deck!  What had happened was that the upper shroud had parted at the spreader fitting.  I was very glad that Keys Rigging had braced that side!
By that time we were in the lee of Boot Key and had a quiet motor in.  Tied up to slip 25 and left the boat for a nice meal at Geiger Key, complete with mosquitoes!